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*»*♦#

MONTHLY

REVIEW

FOR

BUILDING ON SUCCESS

PREVIEWED

BUBBLE BOBBLE

THE FINEST CONVERSION YET?
MORPHEUS THE FIRST SIGHTING

MEGA APOCALYPSE

CRAZY COMETS SURPASSED v

RED L.E.D.

THE JOURNEY OF A LIFETIME

WIN! WIN! WIN!

A UNIQUE ARCADE BRIEFCASE
COURTESY OF OCEAN

AN ADVANCED AIRBRUSH FROM RAINBIRD

AN ADVENTURE DAY OUT
WITH MIRRORSOFT

DEATH WISH 3

The big screen classic, in
which modern day vigilante
Paul Kersey wreaks his own
form of revenge on the scum
and filth that terrorise the
streets of modern day New
York. For too long the gangs
have run wild, un-
challenged in their peverted

feature of city life. So
when the chief of police
turns a blind eye you
decide to take over
where the law left off.

Strap on your famous
475 WILDEY
MAGNUM, turn your-
self into a one man
fighting force armed
with pump action * 1
shotgun, machine gun f
and rocket launcher.

Now turn the tables on
the punks and creeps
who certainly know how
to dish out the violence
but may not be so good at
being on the receiving end

SPECTRUM 48/I28K

MSX Cassette £7.99

tBM 64/128 & AMSTRAD
Cassette £9.99 Disk £14. 99

?' r S°°fMZ° rpioci '‘

*° r r °ao*Tj u,a D»a

af5liuW tag*

I do® 1 ' ^ sp!fl ..e- ^/gal!’

*1*

Gremlin Graphics Software Ltd.,

Alpha House, 10 Carver Street, Sheffield SI 4FS
Tel: (0742) 753423

Screenshots from Spectrum version

CBM 64/128

Cassette £9.99 Disk £14.99

SPECTRUM 48/128K

Cassette £7.99

Capture

AMSTRAD

Cassette £9.99 Disk £14.99

fW-W*

► >\ J

v *;

NIGHTMARE NOW FOR

AM5TRAD

COMMODO

Ocean Spftware Limited

6 Central Street • Manchester • M2 5NS • Tel: 061 832 6633 • Telex: 669977

fe.

ISSUE 30 OCTOBER 1987

Editor

Ciaran Brennan

Assistant Editor
Julian Rignall
Staff Writers

Steve Jarratt, Lloyd Mangram,

Paul Sumner
Contributing Writers
Andrew Braybrook, Mel Croucher,
Philippa Irving,

Brendon Kavanagh, Gary Liddon,
John Minson

Editorial Assistant
Glenys Powell
Production Controller
David Western
Art Director
Gordon Druce
Production

Tony Lorton, Mark Kendrick,
Matthew Uffindell, Nik Orchard,
Jonathan Rignall

Illustrator
Oliver Frey
Photography

Cameron Pound, Michael Parkinson

Advertising Manager
Roger Bennett
Advertising Assistant
Nik Wild
Subscriptions
Denise Roberts
Mail Order
Carol Kinsey

IRREGULARS

70 MANOEUVRES

Ms Irving takes to the air in a B-24 FLIGHT
SIMULATOR, takes to a tank in BLITZKRIEG, and
appeals for reasonable offers of help in her new
tips section

78 COMPETITION RESULTS

And in reverse order, the winners are . . .

83 PLAY BY MAIL

The ins and outs of postal gaming explained by
Brendan Kavanagh

1 06 CHEAP AND CHEERFUL

Shepherd Rignall rounds up this month’s budget
releases and fleeces the little devils

1 14 THE SCORELORD SAYS

The mean machine panders to his follower’s egos

120 THE CHART SHOW

This month’s listings - in glorious technicolour

7 EDITORIAL

Once more from the top - Brennan comes out
smiling and shoots from the hip

8 UNDER THE BAUD-WALK

Mel Croucher points the light of truth into the
darker corners of the computer industry

30 ZZAPI RRAP

The would-be Doctor Mangram displays an
impeccable bedside manner

43 THE WHITE WIZARD

The wiz takes to playing roles, immersing himself
in PHALSBERG and THE BARD’S TALE - he also
conjures up a preview of KNIGHT ORC’S spec-
tacular graphics

59 ZZAPI TIPS

The calm before the storm, as Jaz prepares for the
big one . . .

Editorial Production

1/2 King Street, Ludlow, Shropshire SY8
1AQ

S 0584 5851

Mail Order & Subscriptions

PO Box 10, Ludlow Shropshire SY8 1DB
S 0584 5620

Advertising Information & Bookinqs

S 0584 4603 or 5852

65 GAMES WITHOUT FRONTIERS

A taste of things to come from Newsfield’s newest
publication, THE GAMES MACHINE

76 ART FOR ART'S SAKE?

Steve Van Jarratt peeks out from under his beret,
to cast an artistic eye over Rainbird’s Advanced
Art Studio

87 AN ARCADIAN SUMMER

Risking life and limb in the process, ZZAP! visits
the Joyland arcade

119 READER OFFER

Four Lucasfilm classics for a fiver! - not to be
missed

39 HIT ME WITH YOUR BEST SHOT

The first part of Julian Rignall’s shoot ’em up his-
tory

50 MENTAL PROCREATION

The final episode — including a full-colour preview
of Morpheus

55 THE GREATEST SHOW ON EARTH

John Minson hacks away at the hype surrounding
this year’s PCW show

Printed in England by Carlisle Web Offset
(Member of the BPCC Group), Newtown
Trading Estate, Carlisle, Cumbria.

Colour Origination by Scan Studios,
Wallace Road, London N1

Distributed by COMAG, Tavistock Road,
West Drayton, Middlesex UB7 7QE

No material may be reproduced in whole or

part without the written consent of the
copyright holders. We cannot undertake to
return any written or photographic material
sent in to ZZAP! 64 magazine unless
accompanied by a suitably stamped
addressed envelope. Unsolicited written or
photographic material which may be used
in the magazine is paid for at our current
rates.

OUTSTANDING IN OCTOBER

94 HYSTERIA

Combat the enemy through three levels of action
in Software Projects latest release

98 ACE II

Blast the enemy out of the skies in this split-screen
air combat emulator

106 REVENGE II

Minter’s 60-foot laser spitting camels are
back . . . this time in the form of a budget Silver
Medal

1 06 ARCADE CLASSICS

Play four arcade classics - ASTEROIDS, SPACE
INVADERS, SNAKE and SPACE WARS for only 50p
a throw

12 BUBBLE BOBBLE

Bubble blowing Bronto’s, blancmanges, bananas
and beetroots abound in Firebird’s Gold Medal
arcade conversion

18 RED LED

Explore a series of incredible 3D scrolling land-
scapes in this superb Starlight arcade adventure

26 MEGA-APOCALYPSE

T ravel the galaxy in search of strange new worlds
- and blast them to bits

A NEWSFIELD PUBLICATION

COMPETITIONS

36 THE BEAT 'EM UP BRIEFCASE

Win the pose prize of a lifetime - a RENEGADE
arcade machine courtesy of Ocean

49 ADVANCED ART UTILITY

Win Rainbird’s latest art package - with a little
help from Rockford

75 MEAN STREAK

Adventure, excitement - a Jedi craves not these
things - but you can, courtesy of Mirrorsoft

MEMBER Of The AUDIT
BUREAU Of CIRCULATIONS

Average monthly sales
for the period

JAN - JUNE 1987
Total: 77,483
UK/Eire: 63, 809

Rockford appears in ZZAP! 64 by kind
permission of First Star Inc, whose
copyright he remains.

As far as the eye could see there was sand . . .
nothing but sand. Unless of course you counted all
the kangaroos on pogo sticks, and of course that
little kiosk which doesn’t sell Perrier, oh and let’s
not forget the guy pulling the scarf off the sword
so that his girlfriend will give him a bite of her Tur-
kish Delight. Apart from all this the desert was
empty - it’s always the same on a Friday. The next
ZZAP!’s on sale on October 8th - last one in’s a
cissy!

Cover by Oliver Frey

ZZAP! 64 October 1 987 5

.. .. • - • -
9H HHbi

BY STAVROS FASOULAS

CBM M/1 28

Thalamus Limited

2 Minerva House
Calleva Park
Aldermaston
Berkshire RG7 4QW
Tel: (07356) 77261

, :

• WSm

lisw..

Cassette £ 9.99
Disk £14.99

'i '.V

AND STILL AVAILABLE . . .

DELTA

SANXION

manr

Incentive 31

Micro Doc 31

Microprose 1 5, 24, 82, 1 05, 1 1 3
Nebulae 96

Ocean 4

PCW Show 118

Quicksilva 21

Robtek 74

Softek 69, 85

Thalamus 6

US Gold

38, 54, 58, 86,122,123,132

Verran 100

Virgin 82

IT’S NOT WHAT
YOU DO . . .

77,483 AND RISING

I t’s that time of year again where
the Audit Bureau of Circulations
reveal the sales figures for the
first six months of the year. And
though we’ve never been ones to
sample our own trumpets, we’re
always prepared to allow the
figures to speak for themselves.

Better still, we’ll let the opposi-
tion sing our praises, as a certain
Mr Pratt from EMAP Publications
has recently said the following with
reference to ZZAP! . . .

‘We recognise some of the
devices by which they’ve done
so exceptionally well and quite
frankly we’ll be taking some
leaves out of their book. ’

This is very gratifying (after all
imitation is the sincerest form of
flattery), but I can’t help feeling that
it’s a pity that they can’t come up
with a few ideas of their own.
Anyway, back to business. This
month sees yet more changes in
your favourite Commodore
magazine, not least of
, which is the

introduction of a
special
budget

section. For some time now we
have felt that budget games
neither need nor deserve the same
in-depth coverage as other soft-
ware. For this reason we will now
be covering lower-priced games
in a separate section, without the
extensive ratings which are now
exclusively devoted to full-priced
software.

Another development is the arr-
ival at last of our long promised
Play By Mail section. Brendon
Kavanagh kicks off this month with
a brief guide to the rudiments of
the genre, and month by month
he’ll be bringing us the latest
developments in the world of
postal gaming.

This month also sees the last
adventure section hosted by The
White Wizard. After a career with
ZZAP! which stretches back
almost to the beginning, the
bearded one is off to cast spells
and hexes in pastures
new -we wish him well
... but watch out
for his successor next
month.

Speaking of
corpulent technical

writers (were we?), Gary Liddon
would like to apologise for the fact
that his humourous asides are
missing from this issue-this tem-
porary absence is unavoidable,
because Gaz is hard at work writ-
ing the world’s greatest trousers
joke for a forthcoming episode of
Terry and June. Don’t worry
though fans, the gluttonous guru
will be back next month with his
‘bit in the middle’. Almost as an
afterthought, Gaz also wishes to
say sorry for a teensy mistake in
last month’s section . . . three
lines after the label ‘ SM ’ in the sec-
ond listing, #3 should have read
#7. We hope that didn’t cause you
too much inconvenience.

Hold it! Before you rush off to
read this fun-filled issue, let me
tell, you about a few things which
will be coming up over the next
few months. Our next issue will
contain a glorious 3-D section,
the special glasses, and a
fabulous tips supplement as
well as a host of other features.
‘And how will they follow that’, I
hear you cry. Easy, the following
month’s ZZAP! will contain a
once-off collector’s

issue of 2000 AD, and a 1 6 page
supplement on the latest genera-
tion of 1 6-bit computers - don’t
miss it.

That’s it for this month. Be care-
ful out there, and look me up if you
make it to the PCW show.

Ciaran Brennan

GAMES REVIEWED

ACE II

Jackie and Wide

111

Arcade Classics (SM)

107

Last Mission

Aztec Challenge

106

Laurel and Hardy

B-24 Flight Simulator (S)

Lazer Force

111

Black Magic

Mega Apocalypse (S)

Blitzkrieg

Morphicle

Boulderdash/ll (SM)

106

the Transforming Car

111

Bubble Bobble (GM)

Night on the Tiles

Centurions

Pile-Up

Clean-Up Service

106

Pirates of the Barbary

Cosmonut

106

Coast

Death Race

106

Prohibition

Deliverance

106

Red LED (S)

Destructo

107

Revenge of the

Enforcer

107

Mutant Camels II (SM)

112

Evening Star

Starforce Nova

111

Flunky

Swamp Fever

112

Forbidden Forest

110

The Further Adventures of

Frenesis

110

Alice in Videoland

110

Gun Runner

110

The Tube

Hysteria

Toad Force

112

ADVERTISERS INDEX

Activision

22, 23, 62,

American Action
Argus Press
Ariolasoft
Cascade
Database
Doctor Soft
E&J

Electronic Arts
Electronic Serv
Euromax
Firebird

Gremlin Graphics
Imagine

100
82

. dacKnumbers 1 04

ZZAP! Mail Order 108

UlTH

ZZAP! 64 October 1 987 7

— —

H e slammed his muscled carcass to the heaving deck of Boots Pic, rolling backwards like a used surgical glove. The year was 1981 . It was
up to him, the young Mel Croucher to save the British Computer Games Industry from terminal boredom. Twenty-two kilos of CBM pet
strapped to his back, a suicide pill clenched between his oiled fetlocks, he shook the sweat from his long flowing tresses and hurled a C20
blindly into the advancing horde of business suits. 'Eat tape! Scumbats! ' he barked, shrugging off their pathetic retaliatory fire of Ping-Pong,
Invaders and Hangman. Croucher knew that they couldn't beat him, those faceless dorks sinking into the stinking swamp of copycat shoot
'em ups, as he lobbed a low-yield tactical publicity-stunt grenade in their paths. 'Up your Asteroids! ' he snarled, scenting victory permeat-
ing through the stench of their blanket-bombed press releases. This was guerilla warfare, and they were the monkeys. By 1 984, he had won.
Home computing was a shambles. He had single-handedly introduced celebrity endorsement, cartoon-strip advertising, prize adventures, musical sound-
tracks, interactive movies, sex, humour and filth into computer gaming. Croucher was the biggest cult in the business. And then, Tuesday evening, after
tea and compulsory prayers ... he vanished! All that was left was a geostationary hologram orbiting above the Olympia decorated with the words 'so

long, suckers' in braille. . .

Within hours the bankruptcies began. Soppy software houses, huckster hardware manufacturers, dopey distributors, cruddy magazines, tacky tape
duplicators, one by one they went bust. One by one they stabbed themselves in the foot, made garters out of their own guts, went insane or worse still,
were bought out by US Gold or Activision. Where was Croucher? His disciples erected rubber shrines to his memory, and awaited the second coming.
Rumours began to spread that he had been sighted in Greece, restoring the ruins of Melina Mercouri; that he was holed up inside Matthew Smith; that
he was Fergus McNeil's illegitimate father; that he had changed his name to Mel and Kim. And then it happened. A message from The Man came through
to us here at ZZAP! Maybe we should have left that ouija board alone. Perhaps the knotted garlic, silver bullets and crucifix needed changing. Or was
it because of the spelling mistake in our advert which read 'Rant-Boy wanted'. Anyway, it's too late now. We've rubbed his magic lamp, and we can't
put him back. Once a month a slavering giant Irish Setter with burning eyes and a free bus pass slinks into the Editor's office, with a floppy disc clenched
between someone else's teeth. We still don't know where Croucher hangs out, but the information on that disc is too incredible to ignore. If you can han-
dle it, we can print it, in this, the first extract from . . .

St. SAMANTHA'S DAY,

(Bank Holiday, Lapland)

I know why Domark have had the rights to Jef-
frey Archer's pitiful novel for over six months,
without telling anyone. But it's a matter of hon-
our, so I will leave it to the midget, ex-bankrupt,
ex-Deputy Chairman of the Tory Party to explain
all at the press conference arranged by Solution
PR's Dave Carlos. ILR radio interviewer Karen
Ross assures me that Mr Archer could not possi-
bly have a spotty back, and I believe her - she's
my sister. Not A Penny More Not A Penny Less
(cos I'm leavingtwo grand at Victoria Station) will
soon be available for your Commodore. To save
you reading the book, the millionaire swindler
turns out to be the father of the heroine, and he
gets his come-uppance on page 203.

SECOND WEDNESDAY AFTER
BLOODTEST

I discuss sex with the Doctor, who is full of little
surprises. Not only is Dr. Tim Langdell the mys-
terious force behind Softek and some Irish
guitarist called The Edge, but his real name is
Cheri. Like me, Dr. Langdell is a Scorpio, (pass-
ionate, ruthless and with excellent teeth), unlike
me Dr. Langdell is a blonde Californian hippy
who has designs on my parrot. Today, she sends
it a telex. Unfortunately, my parrot named Percy,
cannot possibly go to a home where 'Cheri'
freely admits that she turned her anteater named
Matthew into a toucan named Charlie. Should
such weirdos be allowed to run software houses?
Especially when they offer me plain brown
envelopes full of coffee, lasagne and clip-on Gar-
field brooches. Big Fat Hairy Deal. What's more,
she's not even a proper doctor! When I ask for a
diagnosis of an outbreak of naked breasts on cas-
sette covers, she claims to be a doctor of litera-
ture!!!

8 ZZAP! 64 October 1 987

ANNIVERSARY OF DEATH OF VLAD
THE IMPALER (Full Moon)

What are the young, thrusting executives of
computer software up to these days? CRL Sup-
remo and OINK thinkalike Clem Chambers tells
me that he's going into the straw business, 'cos
so many people are clutching at them. '

NEW YEAR'S EVE (on Krypton)

I discuss sex with Mirrorsoft's flame-haired bos-
sette Pat Bitten. 'Why is the damsel advertising
Defender of the Crown flat on her back draped
across that horse?' I wonder. The answer is very
simple, 'With boobs that size she couldn't stand
up!' comes her honest answer.* Once bitten
twice shy? I await her threatened delivery of a
single red rose with fluttering heart.

*77 AP! readers are advised to savour the full, frank and fearless
in-depth feature Software Sex, in the first edition of The Games
Machine.

FIRST FRIDAY OF KIPPER
SNORTING SEASON

The Editor of this magazine is holding my favour-
ite painting of Adolf Hitler hostage until I give him
my secret cure for premature baldness. No dice,
Brennan, not until you stop putting silly little
marks over your Christian Name. 'Ciaran'?What
kind of a handle is that? Where would weend up
if we all went around decorating ourselves with
Dago offcuts and typographic rejects. Mel
Croucher means 'to vomit honey' in French,
whereas Melcro Ucher is Hungarian for 'my
manhood is trapped in this modern zipper.'
Before we can say Magnus Magnussun, (which
is Icelandic for Robert Robinson), we'll all be as
crazy as Thalamus, where they use the low-scor-
ing tiles off their Scrabble board to give their
programmers names like Stavros Fasoulas, and
the high-scoring tiles to name his games. After
Sanxion , he is about to inflict Quedex on your
dictionaries, which notches up 75 if you putiton
a triple-word-score. I am assured that Quedex

stands for 'Quest For Ultimate Dexterity', which
I believe is something to do with the art of nose-
picking, or worse. Much worse.

PENICILLIN DAY (Bangkok)

As we all know, the capital of Thailand is named
after its principle industry, which is why System
3 heavyweight Tim Best is arranging to fly a
horde of deadbeats, liggers and perverts out
there, to launch a software entertainment that I
refuse to publicise until I get my ticket. They can
easily afford to pack me into their overnight bag-
gage by flogging off the Ferrari that's been rotting
in the garage since a certain member of staff lost
his licence. So providing I receive this wee bribe
in a plain brown envelope before closing time, I
promise not to tell readers that Tim's current
nickname is HagarThe Horrible.

AH SOULS DAY

This entry is dedicated to the memory of Roger
Kean. Kean was not only one of the finest dan-
cers, but also a great entertainer and man who
always strived to perfect his skills - an example
to us all.

SHUTTERDAY

I discover Fergus McNeil floating among some
bullrushes, near one of my rubber shrines. He
freely admits that I am indeed his creator, and
that he was conceived in a weak solution of
vodka inside my test tube. I am allowed to tell
you that Delta 4 and Abstract Concepts may be
the same people under a different name, but I am
forbidden to say that Fergus is in the process of
cobbling up a superb new adventure system,
comprising the best bits stolen from Infocom,
'cos they're brilliant', from Magnetic Scrolls,
'cos they're not bad' and from Level 9, 'cos
they're ... er, near.' Where did I go wrong
with the lad's training?

Now available
Commodore 64/1 28

£7.95 cass., £1 2.95 disc.

FIREBIRD MAIL ORDER, PO BOX 394 LONDON N8 OQR ^

TELEPHONE HOTLINE 01-348 8618 niTCCDITCU

Published by Firebird Software, A division of British Telecom pic, 1 st Floor, 64-76 New Oxford St„ London WC1 A 1 PS,

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are finally running out (again!)* You must
bridge the path to the much needed
matter supplies, using three ZMX
all-purpose battle-droids to linlc up the
vital cosmic-interlace grid.

C64/128 cass £9.99 C64/128
disk £12.99 AMSTRADcass
£9.99 AMSTRAD disk
£14.99 SPECTRUM £8.99

... * Mi

StIRRTPOnti

n-'^ormaMi

FLUNKY

Piranha, £9.95 cass, £12.95 disk, joystick or keys

L ucky, lucky you. After spend-
ing a couple of months on the
dole, you’ve struck it lucky by
landing a job at Buckingham
Palace as a flunky to the Royal
Family. As such, you have to keep
your employers (The Queen, Andy,
Fergie, Charles and Di) happy by
pandering to their each and every
whim.

The action is viewed side-on,
with the main character able to

x mtm

— —

J s

okay,
sprites are
large and colour-
ful and it does
have a certain
charm, but the action’s slow
and the puzzles are slightly
odd. I think that its greatest
appeal lies in the fact that
strutting around the work-
place in the role of dogsbody
seems strangely familiar to
me. The whole thing seems to
amble along quite happily,
hardly generating any sense of
excitement or urgency - even

a confrontation with the
Palace guard brings hardly a
murmur (even if you do lose a
life through it!). Perhaps this
would appeal to the younger
player (that’s probably why I
liked it), and if that’s its target
market then it should hit the
bull -however, Flunky doesn’t
really have a lot to offer the

i ■

more sophisticated player

—

I wasn’t particu-
larly enamoured
with Trapdoor,
and this is very,
- very similar. The
enormous graphics are admir-
able, and the extremely well-
animated caricatures are par-
ticularly appealing - but other
than that there’s very little in
the gameplay that appealed.
The five tasks are pretty off-
beat and don’t offer much
scope for long-term play -
consequently, once the game
has been completed it loses its
appeal. Trapdoor fans may
think otherwise, but person-
ally I couldn’t find enough in it
to put it near the top of my
shopping list

move ‘in’ and ‘out’ of the screen.
At the start, Flunky walks out of his
office into Buck House and is
immediately told by the head but-
ler to ‘light all the fires’ - an easy
job, which is carried out by using
the box of matches which Flunky
already carries.

For some strange reason,
Flunky is only allowed access to
certain parts of the Palace if he is
carrying the correct Royal’s autog-
raph. If he hasn’t got the right sig-
nature, a guard steps out smartly
and opens fire, removing one of

the hero’s five lives in the process.
An autograph is collected
whenever a task is completed, and
to gain access to the final room, all
five Royal signatures should be
collected.

The five tasks are pretty pecul-
iar, ranging from fetching a toy
boat for Prince Andrew’s bath and
getting Di her wig to giving Fergie
freckles! Each of these jobs is
completed by using the objects
that are carried at the start of the
game, or by picking up and utilis-
ing others which are found around
the royal residence.

If all signatures are collected
within the set time, the Queen’s
throne room is entered where the
final task can be completed. That
done, your days as a royal flunky
are successfully completed and
you can retire happily with pots of
cash!

► Gorgeous, pouting Fergie demands some freckles from the unflappable

Flunky

'AWtf...'

Royalists should
steer well clear of
Piranha’s latest
release which
definitely has
anarchic overtones! The cari-
catures are quite good -
they’re all very recognisable -
and the graphics are cleverly
implemented throughout. In
fact it’s quite surprising how
well the Commodore’s hi-res
mode can work when it wants
to. There’s obviously been a lot
of thought put into the design
of the game to stop it looking a
real mess and having oddly-
coloured attributes over the
place. The gameplay itself,
however, is slightly on the
eccentric side - some people
may have to think hard arid
long over the problems
involved. This kind of game
doesn’t appeal to me, but I’m
sure that fans of Trapdoor will
love i*

2 j h A S vf

PRESENTATION 77%

A restart option, and a rarely use-
ful choice of languages.

GRAPHICS 82%

Large and well animated charac-
ters - shame about the bland
backdrops.

SOUND 63%

Acouple of suitable jingles which
are let down by the jarring sound
effects.

HOOKABILITY 67%

The tasks are quite hard to work
out at times, and consequently
it’s tough for a first-time player.

LASTABILITY 71%

There are only five tasks to com-
plete, although they’re difficult
enough to keep you puzzling.

OVERALL 68%

A competent arcade adventure
which should appeal to Trapdoor
fans.

ZZAP! 64 October 1987 11

(

Firebird, £8.95 cass, £14.95 disk, joystick onl

A stunning conversion of Taito’s surreal arcade machine

N ow it is the start of a fantas-
tic journey! Let’s make a
journey to the cave of
monsters.’ And so begins a
strange and surreal adventure
through 100 caves filled with bub-
ble-spitting Brontosaurii, horrific
hostiles, exotic fruits, wonderful
presents and a large assortment
of generally useful items. Each
cave consists of a screen filled
with platforms, and progression
from one to another occurs when
the entire screen has been
cleared.

An initial decision is made betw-
een either one or two-player
mode. Choose the single player
option however, and a second
player can still join in at any time
during the action. When the start

button is pressed, the Brontosaurii
appear at the bottom left and right.
Shortly after, the hostile cave-
dwellers emerge and rush around
the network of platforms. These
are deadly to touch, and should be
avoided at all costs.

The only means of defence are
the bubbles which a ’saurus spits
when the fire button is depressed.
A bubble travels forward a short
distance before floating upward,
and any creature caught in its hori-
zontal path becomes trapped, and
is helpless about its predicament.
Now the fun begins - if the bronto
jumps up and pops the bubble
with his tough horny head, the cre-
ature within bounces around the
screen, stunned, and turns into a
bannana which is collected for an
extra score. Bubbles always mass
at the top of the screen, and a clus-
ter of bubbled enemies can be
bust at the same time, resulting in
different fruits worth bigger points.

Greed is a terrible thing though,
and if a dinosaur waits too long for
bubbles to mass, the creatures
can escape. Their constant
struggling weakens the bubble
wall and they break through after
1 5 seconds or so. An escapee is a
horrible sight, all red and angry,
and rushing around the screen in a
complete strop, looking for the

brontosaurus responsible for his
imprisonment.

Another hazard which appears
if a screen is not cleared quickly
enough is the dreaded Baron von
Blubba. This indestructible horror
emerges to track down the heroic
dinos, eventually giving his fatal
touch if all the other creatures
aren’t destroyed quickly enough.

Throughout a level, bubbles
float up from the bottom of the
screen. Some of these are water-
filled and cause a mini-flood when
burst. This then pours down the
screen, sweeping away any crea-
ture that stands in its path. Other
bubbles contain letters, with an
extra life awarded if the word
EXTEND is formed. On some
screens, bubbles containing light-

ning can also be burst to send
deadly bolts of electricity whizzing
across the screen.

Goodies appear randomly,
either giving extra points, or
endowing the prehistoric pair with
special bronto-powers. Trainers
for example, give a Bronto extra
speed, and a Lamp either gives
faster bubble-producing abilities
or extra fire-spitting capabilities.
Sometimes an object sets off a
reaction - such as filling the screen
with water, killing all dwellers
within, causing a huge explosion
or sending huge bolts of lightning
from above. On very rare occa-
sions, collecting an item makes all
the hostiles disappear and the
screen becomes filled with objects
- which are collected within a 20
second time limit for a 100,000
points bonus.

As the dinosaurs progress
through the levels, all manner of
creatures are encountered. Early
levels are inhabited by square-
headed morons, whereas later
screens contain boulder-lobbing
ghosts, flying fish, helicopter hip-
pos, springing things, gremlins
and missile-dropping Space
Invaders. When the 100th screen

A trickle of water rushes down the hole - hopefully it took a baddie with it

ZZAP! 64 October 1 987

I ’d only ever seen the arcade machine once before playing the
64 version, so I’m not terribly prejudiced one way or the other
as to the quality of the conversion. The game is technically
adept, with heaps of things whizzing all over the screen and the
great graphics - endowed with loads of ‘cute’ appeal and plenty
of character. It’s the gameplay however, that brings the game
into its own - it’s unbelievably addictive. If you buy this on a
Saturday, you can kiss the rest of your weekend goodbye! Hav-
ing seen most of the 100 screens (we’ve got a cheat version
here in the office), I can safely say that you’re in for a pretty
tough time. Play on your own - or better still, play with a friend,
but either way - play! This has got to be one of the best platform
games of all time .... if not the best!

► One of the more devious screens on the excellent
conversion of Bubble Bobble

I t’s a rare and beautiful occa-
sion when a great arcade
machine is perfectly con-
verted - but thankfully this is
one such event. No matter
what format it appears in,
there are very few games
which generate as much fun as
Bubble Bobble - and even
watching two other people
playing is marvellously enter-
taining! After all, this is the
game with everything that your
average gamesplayer could
ever want - Wacdonald’s fries,
the evil count, cuddly
monsters and alcohol-free
lager! Although it’s basically a
two-player game, it’s still a
real pleasure to play on your
own. So go out and get it now
and experience some fun
graphics, silly sounds, whacky
gameplay and, most impor-
tantly, a lot of laughs.

► If the baddie-bearing bubbles aren’t burst soon, they’ll break out, turn pink and go into a mega-strop

B ubble Bobble is one of my favourite arcade games at the
moment, and I must confess to waiting for this conversion
with some trepidation. After all, there have been so many disap-
pointments lately, with pale, bastardised imitations of original
arcade games being the usual result of a conversion. Imagine
my surprise when Firebird’s conversion turned out to be one of
the finest yet seen on the Commodore. All the features of the
100 screen arcade game have been included, and the graphics,
music and gameplay are about as close as you’re ever going to
get. The action is maddeningly addictive, and I’ve been playing
it solidly since it came into the office. There’s so much depth,
and so many different features, like working out how to trigger
the mega-bonuses and how to break into the hidden screen.
Bubble Bobble is simply superb - a licensing triumph which
shouldn’t be missed at any cost.

is reached, the extremely large
chief cave-dweller appears and is
bubbled many, many times before
dropping the final curtain and join-
ing the choir invisible.

Finally, there’s a secret screen
which is revealed when a special
fruit-collecting sequence is com-
pleted. Can you find it?

► The final screen - beware the attack of the extremely large (but still quite cute) cave-dweller

TOP

20000

PRESENTATION 92%

One or two player mode, a hid-
den level, and good on-screen
presentation.

GRAPHICS 84%

Extremely ‘cute’ and highly
detailed sprites, finished off with
great use of colour.

SOUND 8 7%

A Jolly soundtrack plays
throughout, exactly like the
arcade game’s.

HOOKABILITY 97%

Instant appeal and massive
addiction.

LASTABILITY 91%

One hundred screens of highly
addictive action, with plenty of
depth.

TOP

20000

OVERALL 97%

A superlative conversion which
retains all of the fun and features
of the original.

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ZZAP! 64 October 1987 13

The Tube is not
really up to the
standard we’ve
come to expect.
The graphics are
reasonable, but otherwise
there’s very little in the action
to make progress even a tiny
bit enjoyable. Having endured
the tedium of the first screen, I
found the second screen dull,
and the return to the start after
the loss of a life is very frustrat-
ing. The third screen is the best
of the three, but even that can-
not be recommended as it’s far
too easy. This is an unattrac-
tive game, which doesn’t offer
anything like enough playabil-
ity.

Quicksilva, £8.95 cass, joystick with keys

aving suffered a severe
power drain, the good ship
Tracker II has drifted into a
black hole - only to be thrown out
on the other side of the galaxy,
right next to an awesome alien
construction . . . The Tube!

This huge device is an alien
space waste disposal system,
drawing rubbish in through one
end to be stored for later collection
and re-use.

Taking manual control of
Tracker II, you guide the vessel
through the Tube, attempting to
restore the ship’s energy banks
and escape the sanitary prison.

There are three main areas to
the Tube, the first being the Trans-
fer Zone. Here, a large forcefield
drags your ship into the gaping
maw of the alien vessel. Caught in
its web-like energy matrix, other

There are some
really nice ideas
and effects
behind The Tube,
but unfortunately
they haven’t been
implemented to their full
potential. The first section is
remarkably easy, and it’s pos-
sible to leave the computer
and do something else while
the level is cleared. The sec-
ond is merely a Scramble
derivative that suffers from a
sluggish and unwieldy control
method, and the third (the best
of the bunch) is a simplistic
puzzle game with a vertically
scrolling landscape thrown in
as an afterthought. If a little
more thought had been put
into the gameplay, The Tube
might have been fun. As it
stands, it just isn’t challenging
enough.

Negotiating the web-like tractor beam at the start of the Tube

alien vessels survive by draining
the power from ships passing
through this tractor beam. Before
entering the Tube itself, an attack
of these ships is fended off, lest
the ship’s energy be diminished
completely leaving it totally help-
less.

On safely reaching the Tube
entrance, the Defence Mechanism
Tunnel is entered. Here, a series of
defence systems attempt to
weaken vessels prior to entering
the capture area. If, as in your
case, ships prove to be capable of
damaging the Tube, the defence

systems attempt to destroy it
instead. You must carefully guide
Tracker II through the horizontally
scrolling tunnel, avoiding the tun-
nel walls and missiles which are
launched against you.

Successfully negotiating the
Defence Mechanism Tunnel facili-
tates entry to the Capture Area,
where previously captured ships
are stored ready for the Tube’s
constructors to dismantle and
devour them at their convenience.
Many ships still retain a high power
level, and docking with these ena-
bles you to drain off much needed
energy, and also to collect their
unwanted energy crystals which
may then be used to bring your
ship back up to full power. Dock-
ing is carried out automatically by
positioning the Tracker II in front of
the required vessel. Access to the
ship is gained by initiating a col-
our-coded wiring sequence which
effectively opens the ship’s hatch-
way.

Four energy crystals are
needed, and once a crystal has

Catchment Area One - the space equivalent of the elephant’s graveyard

been collected, you are trans-
ported to the next section of the
Tube, where a second level of
three zones is confronted.

All the time that I
was playing The
Tube, I kept get-
ting this feeling of
‘what if . . . ?’.

There are loads of good ideas
within the game (and some
great effects), but the main
themes included are simple
and derivative of other
releases. The first section is
more or less without purpose
- you can easily finish it, and
after one or two goes it pro-
vides nothing more than an
inconvenience to be endured
rather than played. Only the
second two sections entertain
to any degree, and even then
the challenge is frustrated by
the repetition of having to sit
through the first section after
each successful round. The
Tube does offer a little chal-
lenge - but I’d advise you to
have a good look before shel-
ling out your nine quid.

PRESENTATION 79%

Adequate instruction and plenty
of options.

GRAPHICS 71%

Clever use of colour and neat
effects, but the tacky sprites
tend to mar the appearance.

SOUND 62%

Poor effects and average music.

HOOKABILITY 53%

The first section is technically
clever, but the rest of the levels
are straightforward.

LASTABILITY 43%

Repetitive and limited in variety.

OVERALL 54%

An attempt at something differ-
ent, which doesn’t quite come
off.

14 ZZAP! 64 October 1987

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attack at every opportunity. Con-
tact with one of these (or their
deadly spittle) reduce’s the hero’s
health, represented by a diminish-
ing bar.

All is not bad though, and extra
food and arrows are picked up to
increase chances of survival.
Spells are also discovered and can
be used to help in times of extreme
duress. When the mission starts,
the hero is ranked an apprentice
and is only able to cast two types
of spells - a minor teletransporta-
tion spell called blink, and vanish,
a limited invisibility spell. However,
as creatures are killed and objects
and eyes picked up, experience
points are gained. When 3000
experience points have been col-
lected, the hero is ranked a wizard
and is capable of freezing both
water and any creatures which
come in his path. Next is the rank
of Sorcerer, capable of conjuring
fire, extra health, food or arrows,
and finally the ultimate status of
Necromancer, where fear and
bolts are added to the already
stunning array of weapons. When
this status is reached and all six
eyes have been collected, the
statue can be approached and
Zahgrim finally defeated - but it’s
a tough task!

BLACK MAGIC

US Gold, £9.99 cass, £14.99 disk, joystick only

When playing this
Wf I was reminded of

~ Capcom’s Ghosts

’n’ Goblins, espe-
cially with the
style of the backdrops. The
gameplay is quite addictive,
and the desire to find all six
eyes is very strong indeed.
There are plenty of hostile cre-
atures to contend with, and
sometimes the enemy are so
numerous there aren’t enough
arrows to deal with them all!
Black Magic is a fast little blast,
and well worth casting your
eye over for a spell.

T he kingdom of Marigold has
been under the thumb of the
evil Red Warlock Zahgrim
for too long. Hideous demons
roam the streets while good citi-
zens cower in their homes, afraid
to venture forth. Luckily there is a
hero, an apprentice willing to take
on the might of Zahgrim and
banish him from Marigold - that
hero is you. To achieve the task,
the six magical eyes of the former
good King Anakar must be found

and replaced in a large stone
statue buried deep in the caverns
of Marigold. These eyes are scat-
tered throughout Marigold, so the
quest is an arduous one.

The adventure takes place over
a large multi-directionally scrolling
platform landscape. The hero
starts the mission at the top left
hand corner of the map and
explores the surface and the huge
underground complex to find the
six eyes.

Throughout the quest, Zah-
grim’s minions, including demons,
bats, ogres, ghosts, giant
monsters and fire-spitting plants,

► A huge swamp demon rises from
the water

\ f\ k ZSiL The °ld proverb,
' xijLx tfj ‘don’t judge a
book by its cover ’
■IBbEmBI holds very true
here, as at first
Black Magic looks a right load
of codswallop. The sprites are
inept and the backdrops are
nothing to write home about -
it even sounds grotty, with
nothing but crude effects to
generate an atmosphere. But,
Black Magic is extremely play-
able, and throws down a plea-
sureable and addictive chal-
lenge that should keep even
the most adept of arcade
adventurers amused and
perplexed for some consider-
able time. Progressing
through the RPG type status is
a challenge, and collecting the
six eyes really takes some
doing. I’ve spent a lot of time
playing this, and thoroughly
enjoyed every moment - if
you’re a keen arcade adven-
turer, I think you will too.

Although

Black

yi Magic looks like it

■ vISH was designed by
a committee of
chimps, the game
itself actually play really well,
falling half-way between an
RPG and an arcade adventure.
There’s enough depth there to
satisfy most would-be cave-
dwellers, and as progress
depends heavily on the items
collected and the efficiency
with which you despatch your
foes, each game is sufficiently
different every time it’s played.
If you’re an arcade adventure
hankering for some action,
you can’t really go wrong with
Black Magic.

ftPPKniTier

► T rading with trolls tends to be a one-way affair!

PRESENTATION 71%

No title screen or options, but
thoughtful in-game layout.

GRAPHICS 54%

Unimpressive and strictly func-
tional backdrops and sprites.

SOUND 50%

Reasonable spot effects only.

HOOKABILITY 82%

Instantly rewarding exploration

INSTABILITY 83%

Plenty to keep an avid player
adventuring for some time.

TROLL EXCHANGES FOOD FOR
TIME LIMITED SPELLS!!
AST MS MANY MS YOU DMH ! I !

OVERALL 77%

Although looking and sounding
awful, this is a highly enjoyable
and challenging arcade adven-
ture.

ZZAP! 64 October 1 987 1 7

■

E arth’s resources are running
out again, and the only way
new power can be generated
is by linking the vital cosmic inter-
lace grid. This grid consists of 37
inter-connected coloured hexa-
gons, each representing a world.
The objective is to form a continu-
ous line of hexagons from one side
of the grid to the other - a task
achieved by liberating , all the
worlds along that line. Three ZMX
all-purpose battle robots and an
hour of real-time are all that the
player has to complete this world-
saving task.

A world is captured by teleport-
ing a battle-droid to the landscape
in question, and guiding it around
to find and collect all four energy
pods. These small- pyramidal
objects activate the exit portal,,
allowing the landscape to be
claimed and the droid transported
to the next world.

Each world is filled with danger,
including acid lakes, chasms, pre-
cipices and steep slopes leading
to infinity. Should the droid fall
from the landscape, one minute is
removed from the total time
allowed for the mission. To help
find the way around the land-
scape, a map can be accessed
from the keyboard showing the
terrain immediately surrounding
the remote droid.

Each of the three droids has dif-
ferent assets and capabilities. The
first, ‘fang’, doesn’t like the acid
pools, but is immune to gravity and
can hang on the sloping walls of
the landscape without sliding
down. The flat, round hover droid
floats across the landscape on a
cushion of anti-nothing. He is
unaffected by the acid lakes, but

►

has difficulty in coping with hills
and valleys. Finally, there’s the
standard issue droid: he has the
least fun of all, being adversely
affected by both gravity and acid.

The landscape is infested with
enemy robots which home in and
attempt to crash into the active
droid. Energy is lost each time a
collision occurs, with lost power
represented by a shrinking bar.
Shooting an attacker, however,
expands the bar once again.

Enemy robots are produced by
generators which are dotted
around the landscape. Blasting
these ceases robot production
from that unit and gives the droid a
large energy boost. The only prob-
lem with this is that it angers the
remaining robots, who attack with
added vigour.

Acid lakes, rivers and acid falls
are frozen by tripping a snowflake
shaped ice-switch. This freezes
the acidic liquid momentarily,
allowing both the land droids to
cross without sustaining any dam-
age.

Other items found about the
landscapes include teleport pads
which enable the more arduous
terrains to be negotiated success-
fully, and all-destroying smart
bombs which are collected and
activated when necessary. Time-
distort capsules are occasionally
encountered and either add or
subtract five minutes to the timer,
depending on the way they’re
spinning. Spinning letters which
' are collected to eventually spell
BONUS and give access to the
bonus screen. This screen takes
place on the last world played, and
the droid negotiates the landscape

The first interlace grid, showing the 37 battlegrounds available to your
droids

► Having emerged from a teleport pad, the basic droid whizzes

across a frozen acid lake to collect his first energy pod

RED L.E.D.

Starlight, £9.99 cass, £12.99 disk, joystick or keys

• A race against time across a fabulous series
of scrolling 3-D worlds

from the drop zone to the exit por-
tal within the allotted time. There
are no enemy robots around and
the exit is open, so it is merely a
matter of dexterity and speed.

Points are scored for complet-
ing a landscape, shooting the
enemy droids and collecting
objects. Each time 100,000 points
are gaihed, an extra droid is
awarded.

Once a world is finished with,
the droid returns to base, and the
• interlace grid appears once more.
Liberated landscapes appear as
glowing hexagons, while lands
which proved fatal turn white.
Once a hexagon has changed col-
our it may not be attempted again,
and so the choice of pathway to
take is important. Choose wisely,
think straight and get that line.

T he inertial control is very difficult to get to grips with, and
successfully moving around the anti-droid terrain takes
some perseverance. The acid baths, waterfalls and sheer drops
are also tricky hazards to to contend with, and if that isn’t
enough you’ve also got other droids to avoid, objects to collect
and alien generators to zap! The action is constantly furious,
and I felt pretty whacked after I finally managed to clear a level
- even so I wanted to go straight back for more. Red L E D. is
speedy, smooth, slick, colourful and compelling - and provides
the perfect balance between manual and mental dexterity. If
Starlight can keep up this standard, they should be selling
games for a long time to come.

18 ZZAP! 64 October 1987

The exit portal -
a trans-dimensional
chasm to freedom

A map of each battleground is
supplied for those with no
sense of direction

The hover-droid appears
on an island block
via the teleport
system

ZZAP! 64 October 1987 19

■■■■tillilllU* S

A fter a none-too-impressive start with Deathscape, Greyfell
and Dogfight 2187, Starlight has finally hit the big time -

PRESENTATION 90%

Logical and well designed game
structure, plus the inclusion of a
high score table, pause mode
and map mode.

GRAPHICS 93%

Superlative backdrops with
smooth scrolling and effective
movement throughout.

SOUND 72%

Limited, but atmospheric sound
effects.

HOOKABILITY 84%

The comfortable control method
makes the action quite easy to
get into, and there’s a wide
choice of landscapes to explore
from the start.

LASTABILITY 92%

Finishing one grid is a rewarding
challenge - finishing the whole
game is a real achievement.

I thought I’d seen the ultimate in geometric 3-D landscapes
with Spindizzy, The Sentinel and, to a lesser extent, Marble
Madness. Apparently not . . . Red L E D. has ideas to the con-
trary, containing some of the most realistic and imaginative
dioramas I’ve ever seen on a home computer. The movement
of the droids is great, with just the right amount of difficulty so
that each landscape starts off as a challenge - and remains a
challenge on successive plays. The game itself is huge. There
are loads and loads of screens and they’re all very devious and
cleverly constructed. Although seeming derivative of other
games, Red L E D. is in fact unique in its approach and brilliant
in its design. It took them four attempts, but Starlight have
finally found their star bright.

OVERALL 93%

A truly impressive product, bril
liantly designed, implemented
and executed.

T he place - Chicago. The era
-the late 1920’s. Prohibition
has been in force for several
years now, allowing the more
enterprising of criminals to build
up business empires based on the
illicit trafficking of alcoholic liquor.

In an attempt to retain their slice
of the market, rival gangs indulge
in bloody wars of attrition - murder
becomes a household word, and
fear riddles the streets of the windy
city.

Unable to adequately police the
city, Mercenaries like yourself
have been called in to help control
the ascending crime wave in the
only way you know how . . . termi-
nation with extreme prejudice.

\ * thought that I

was really going
L. mU to like this one.

The promise of
* packing a

tommy-gun and indiscrimi-
nately eliminating hoodlums
sounded like it could provide a
great deal of fun. However, the
finished product wasn’t realty
all that I expected it to be. The
action is simply too repetitive
to be really compulsive, and
the superb graphics and pres-
entation don’t make up for the
irritation caused by the awk-
ward control method. I
appreciate that the juddering

many buildings, only small sec-
tions of which are immediately vis-
ible surrounding your gunsight.
Moving the gunsight causes the
block to scroll past - vertically and
horizontally - enabling the whole
street to be viewed.

Gangsters appear at openings,
windows, doors and the roof of the
block and on the sidewalk. If they
come out of hiding in a part of the
block not within your local field of
view, a small arrow appears at the
bottom of the screen pointing in
their general direction.

As soon as one gangster is
despatched, five seconds are
allotted in which to find and shoot
the next, the time shown numeri-
cally at the side of the screen. Fail-
ing to kill your opponent in time is
rewarded with a hail of returning
fire which, unless dodged, proves
fatal.

Dodging bullets is achieved by
pressing any key, whereupon the
screen then turns grey and the
offending bullets go whizzing past.
Releasing the key resumes the
countdown timer, giving you
another chance to pinpoint the
opposition.

Avoiding shots in this way may
be carried out many times, but a
second meter displays the total
amount of ‘ dodge’ time remaining.
Should this run out, you have to
resort to your speed and skill as a

gunsight is supposed to simu-
late the uncontrollable nature
of a 1920’s machine gun, but it
is too hard to handle, and
makes aiming a matter of luck
rather than skill. Essentially,
Prohibition is an extremely
polished product which would

1 r Once the wobbl-

i n 9 gunsight has
V been mastered,

scanning the
buildings and
shooting down gangsters
becomes a breeze. After I’d
got to grips with the tricky con-
trol method I waited for some-
thing exciting to happen. It
didn’t, and I became increas-
ingly bored when man after
man was despatched. The
novelty of shooting down the
gangsters wears off surpris-
ingly quickly, and when this
happens there’s very little
excitement to be gleaned. The
lack of variety proves to be a
millstone around Prohibition’s
neck, and at ten pounds I’d
expect a little more fun for my
money. Play the arcade game
City 1931 a couple of times,
and spend the balance else-
where.

Variety is sadly
lacking from this
latest trans-
it imiiwl channel offering.

The game itself is
neatly implemented and con-
tains some very noteworthy
graphics, but unfortunately it
falls well short in the entertain-
ment stakes. Once you get the
hang of the shaking gunsight,
there’s simply nothing left to
offer any challenge. Having
played for what seemed like
ages, I’d obtained a score of
over $5,000 with five lives left
and little possibility of being
shot. I could have at least dou-
bled this - very dull! For me,
Prohibition quickly lost its
attraction.

have benefited greatly from
having some more time spent
on the gameplay.

Positioning yourself in one of the
seedier parts of town, your brief is
to kill all the hired gunmen as they
appear from their hiding places
across the street. Armed with the
ubiquitous Thompson sub
machine-gun, you line up the
gun’s cross hairs over your
intended victim and press the fire
button to send a hail of lead in his
general direction.

The block opposite contains

► Even Chicago’s manholes conceal trigger happy hoodlums

20 ZZAP! 64 October 1987

TRANSFER ZONE

DEFENCE MECHANISM TUNNEL

CAPTURE AREA

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Commodore 64/ 1 28 cassette (£9.99), disk (£ 1 4.99), Spectrum 48K/ 1 28K (£7.99) and Atari ST (£24.99)

System 3, 23, Pond Street, Hampstead, London NW3 2PN. V

Mail Order: Activision (UK) Ltd., Units 3 & 4 Lloyds Close, Finedon Rd. Industrial Estate, Wellingborough NN8 4FR.
Distributed by Activision (UK) Ltd.

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t dventure through a complex and colourful Oriental world of magic, mysticism and intrigue

Moebius - fabled deity of the island Kingdom of Khantun - has chosen you,

* his disciple, to reclaim the stolen Orb of Celestial Harmony from the
irenegade warlord. .

Featuring superbly animated martial arts and sword-fighting combat, 4 4 : \y-

Moebius is far better than other Far Eastern adventures. Strategically '

and tactically more challenging, this odyssey
takes you through the realms of Earth, Water; -

Air and Fire. The dynamic playfield changes '' : ; 4 ■ '

constantly as you travel across 26 terrain types,

encountering earthquakes, roqkslides, heavy rains and heatwaves.

Graphics are top-notch and yoti can communicate with all the townspeople.

There are 2 distinct magic systems, mixed combat modes and a fearsome

array of enemies. \ ;

Moebius fills both sides of two disks and is available
Jjl for the CBM 64, Amiga^At^ri ST and Apple.
Prices from £19.99*

se Software Ltd., 2 Market

CENTURIONS

Reaktor, £9.99 cass, £12.99 disk, joystick only

S aturday morning TV fans will
no doubt recognise the
heroes of Reaktor’ s latest
offering, Centurions. Ace
McCloud, Jake Rockwell and Max
Ray are all here, ready to battle the
forces of Doc Terror as he
attempts to infiltrate the Weapons
Development Centre and make off
with the World’s largest supply of
Tyron Dichromate - a chemical
used to catalyse the process of
Nuclear fusion. Armed with their
customised exo-frames, Jake and
his team enter the maze-like con-
fines of the complex and begin
blasting!

The action is displayed Gauntlet
style, with the Weapons Centre
appearing as a large three-level
multi-directionally scrolling maze.
A SCOUT droid appears at the

After spending an
extremely long
time playing Cen-
turions, I never
really felt that I
had gained any real profi-
ciency at it. The main problem
was the inlay, which can hardly
be described as infomative. It
tells you half of the game’s
aims, and assumes that you
can get past die first few prob-
lems without any guidance.
Once you’ve got over this first
hurdle, you suddenly find that
the gameplay is really very
thin. In fact most of your time
is spent travelling repeatedly
(especially in a one-player
game) over a dreary and drab
landscape looking for one elu-
sive door - not very exhilarat-
ing. The most exciting part of
the game seems to be the
choosing of weapons after
picking up a ’Quant’, and even
this is far too simplistic to pre-
sent any kind of long-term
interest.

I must confess to
watching Centur-
ions, usually
when I’m suffer-
ing from the ’no-
thing else to do on a Saturday
morning but sit in bed and
watch Get Fresh’ syndrome.
Therefore I feel qualified to say
that this officially licensed
game bears only a passing
resemblance to the cartoon
series, lacking most of its
action and excitement. The
first level is pretty straightfor-
ward, but there’s so much to-
ing and f ro-ing on the two sub-
sequent levels that it becomes
frustrating - especially as the
sprites move so slowly. A ’save
game’ option would also have
been nice as the game takes
hours to complete - and hav-
ing to sit down for such a
length of time is just too much.
It’s a shame that this is so,
because with a little more
thought, Centurions could have
been quite neat.

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Jake Rockwell, in the process of destroying cases of Tyron dichromate

sing the fire button when the
desired selection is lit adds that
weapon to the character’s exo-
frame. Gathering the first system,
‘A’, provides a random weapon
plus extra energy to top up

start of the mission, transforming
into Ace, Jake or Max by walking
over the pads marked Land, Sea
and Air (in two-player mode, the
second droid appears automati-
cally when the fire button is pres-
sed).

The complex is inhabited by Doc
Terror’s massed hordes, which are
destroyed by blasting. Energy is
lost if a hostile touches a hero, with
this loss depicted as a diminishing
number.

A glowing ‘Quant’ appears
when enough aliens have been
despatched, and is picked up to
allow our heroes to choose a new
weapon. These weapons are repr-
esented at the bottom of the
screen by the letters A to I, high-
lighted in rapid succession. Pres-

I love the opening
sequence, but
the game itself
fails to inspire me
to a similar
degree. The gameplay simply
revolves around the negotia-
tion of huge mazes, blasting
the enemy as you go. The only
hurdle is the disappearing
energy, but this is no longer a
problem once you get the hang
of selecting the correct energy
replenishing module. Thereaf-
ter, there is nothing to stop you
from completing the game,
except for the fact that the
whole complex is fairly large
and the mazes are extremely
devious. You find yourself
trooping back and forth over
the same ground time and time
again, changing character and
swapping keys. If you’re a
mapping freak you’ll have a
field day. If not - look else-
where.

Part of the Weapons Centre that the Centurions must protect from the armies of Doc Terror

- - « •••*■■ "■

.j* ^

J* _ _* 2 'J* . _

reserves. The weapons have dif-
ferent destructive capabilities, but
they all only last for a limited
amount of time.

Progress is made from level to
level by finding six segmants of a
master key and using them to
unlock the relevant passage. How-
ever, smaller keys must be found
to open the doors that separate
different parts of the labyrinthine
complex. Each of the locks is repr-
esented by a shape - square,
triangular, circular and so on. The
corresponding keys are to be
found on a plinth surrounded by
air, land or sea. Only the Centurion
with the correct ability can cross
the elemental ‘moat’, and there-
fore you have to change from one
character to another in order to
retrieve all the keys.

If at any time a character is hit by
the face of Doc Terror he is
beamed back to headquarters and
once again reverts to SCOUT
droid form.

PRESENTATION 79%

Brilliant opening sequence and
good documentation, slightly
marred by the lack of a game
save option.

GRAPHICS 62%

Good use of colour on the back-
drops, but the animation is poor
and the sprites have little con-
nection to their celluloid counter-
parts.

SOUND 77%

A stirring Ben Daglish sound-
track - unfortunately accom-
panied by effects which are no
more than adequate.

HOOKABILITY 60%

Zapping Doc Terror’s cronies is
simplicity itself.

LASTABIUTY 43%

The compulsion to wade through
all three levels soon disappears
when the enormity of the task
ahead becomes apparent.

OVERALL 53%

An initially entertaining arcade
adventure which soon becomes
tiresome.

ZZAP! 64 October 1 987

MEGA-

APOCALYPSE

Martech, £8.95 cass, £12.95 disk, joystick only

• Martech’s visually and aurally stunning follow-up to Crazy Comets.

S pace, the final frontier.
These are the voyages of a
complete maniac hell-bent
on the destruction of large sec-
tions of the Universe. Your mission
is simple - to boldly go on a five
year mission to seek out strange
new worlds and civilizations . . .
and blow them to smithereens.

One or two players can partake
in this world-shattering action,
with both piloting a moderately
equipped delta-winged ship. At
the start of an attack wave extra
equipment, including missiles,
extra speed, rotate motors,
shields and (thankfully) extra lives
are picked up and automatically
added to the ship. Care must be
taken, however, as small comets
frequently inhabit this mass of
useful debris and collision with
such a heavenly body is fatal.

Suitably swathed in death-deal-
ing weaponry, the mission proper
begins. Moons and planets come
whizzing out of the swirling star-
field straight towards the ship. The
on-board lasers can deal instant
death to a smaller item, but let a
moon hang around too long and it
transforms in size, from moon to
Mega Callisto and then to Mega

Collecting extra equipment at the
start of Mega-Apocalypse

S imon Nichol has done a
marvellous job in updating
Crazy Comets, adding extra
features and playability where
it scarcely seemed possible.
The music and speech are
especially notable, adding an
extra dimension to the excite-
ment already offered by the
graphics and gameplay - stir-
ring stuff indeed. This has to
be one of the most frantically
paced games I’ve ever played
- even the addition of a second
player on screen does little to
ease the task of planet
destruction. Mega-Apocalypse
is one of the few games which
had me actually practising and
striving to get better . . . there
can hardly be a higher recom-
mendation than that.

Krypton, which is far more difficult
to destroy. After many laser hits,
these large bodies start to glow
and go into a frenzy, zooming
around the screen at a horrendous
rate of knots, all the time homing in
on your ship. If missiles have been
collected, they automatically fire
upon the moon when it reaches
the height of its activity, blowing it
up. If not, only some extremely
fancy flying keeps your ship in one
piece.

As you progress through the
rounds, completing a level is occa-
sionally rewarded by a visit from a
Mega Xothopian - a colossal
planet intent on your demise.
These are dealt with in a similar
fashion to Mega Kryptons, but
take more hits to destroy and are
even more agitated in their orbits.

Mega-Apocalypse supports
one and two player modes,
whereby both ships appear on
screen at the same time, with both

HOB'S DO

▲ In one player mode, all those goodies are yours for the taking

26. ZZAP! 64 October 1987

A ccording to the dictionary, an apocalypse is a prophetic
revelation. Well the arrival of Simon Nichol’s game has
been prophesised for some months now, and playing the game
is certainly an enlightening experience! Mega-Apocalypse is a
real high-energy shoot ’em up, boasting some of the most rapid
and chaotic action to be seen on a 64 for some time. Mr Nichol
has done a marvellous job, and the game’s technical achieve-
ments are so well implemented that you almost take them for
granted. The spinning star-field is superb, and a joy to watch in
the ‘insomniac’s star mode’. The music, speech and sound
effects also play a large part, especially the latter two, which
are nothing short of excellent, and really add to the atmosphere.
If there are any owners of Crazy Comets wondering if it’s worth
buying Mega-Apocalypse, don’t worry - it’s in a class of its own
and has more than enough innovations to justify its purchase.

\* ty After the rather

A disappointing

V HH Pirates , I had high
hopes for this
release -unfortu-
nately I was let down again.
The graphics and trading
aspects are very simplistic,
and become repetitious after
a couple of sessions. That’s
not the worse thing, though -
the gameplay is also incredibly
slow. Having to load the can-
nons one after the other is
amazingly laborious, and
there’s no real ‘action’ other-
wise. That, coupled with the
long disk accesses means it
isn’t long before the game gets
incredibly tiresome.

G et ready to freak out, and
take on some rather crazy
heavenly bodies! Mega-
Apocalypse is one of the fas-
test and most colourful shoot
’em ups around. Simon Nichol
has taken the basic idea of
Crazy Comets and improved
the gameplay, graphics and
sound immensely. The new
aspects of gameplay include
features which are collected
and added on to the ship at the
start of a wave, including the
ability to rotate, homing mis-
siles and a speed-up feature.
There’s also a simultaneous
two-player mode and a new
giant mega-comet which
bangs about the screen at an
amazing speed. The spinning
star-field that forms the back-
drop is absolutely stunning,
and the animation on the plan-
ets is great. The sampled
sound effects and speech are
incredibly clear, and don’t
interfere in any way with the
excellent Rob Hubbard sound-
track. Mega-Apocalypse is a
shoot ’em up par excellence -
watch out for it.

J w L I Obviously there
are comparisons
here to the equi-
valent Micro-
prose offering,
and in fact, the basis of both
games is very similar, with
trading and battles being the
main features of the gameplay.
Pirates! does have a lot more
depth, but of course it costs
twice as much to buy. The
graphics of Cascade’s release
are of a fairly basic standard
and the gameplay is also rep-
etitive, but actually destroying
other vessels is quite good fun,
especially when they cruise
past on fire! Pirates of the Bar-
bary Coast isn’t anything spec-
ial though, and should really
have been even cheaper to
justify its ‘budget’ label.

they must be loaded with powder
and a cannonball, tamped down
and brushed out.

The enemy ship sails slowly past
your row of 1 5 cannons, which are
fired individually. Achieving a
direct hit depends upon the eleva-
tion of the barrel, which becomes
a matter of trial and error: a mes-
sage bar tells you if your shot was
long or short, allowing you to alter
the elevation accordingly. Achiev-
ing a direct hit causes the oppos-
ing ship to burst into flames, and
when enough damage is sus-
tained, the enemy ship flounders.
At this point you may board the
vessel and take either the ship’s
log for information, or its booty to
swell your coffers.

Keeping your ship and crew in
good condition also plays an
important part in your mission,
which concludes only when you
have rescued your daughter, or
gone to Davey Jones’ locker in the
attempt.

DISK ONLY

ZZAP! 64 October 1987 27

PIRATES OF THE
BARBARY COAST

Cascade, £9.95 disk, joystick or keys

scores being kept separately for
addition to the extensive high-
score table at the end ofthegame.

If all the intensive joystick
waggling becomes too much, you
can always relax in front of the
‘star mode’ which shows off the
spinning star-field to the best of its
capabilities.

PRESENTATION 71%

Pleasant introduction, but the
slow-moving cursor is a bind -
especially during the battle
sequence.

GRAPHICS 52%

The graphics generate little
atmosphere, and on occasion
are quite poorly executed.

SOUND 23%

A weak opening tune plus one or
two decent effects.

HOOKABILITY 67%

The distinct lack of action is not
helped by the off-putting cursor
control.

LASTABILITY 48%

Those who persevere should
rapidly see a conclusion to the
mission, and the occasional
player will find little to stir the
imagination.

PRESENTATION 93%

Good options with one and two
player modes and a superlative
high-score table.

GRAPHICS 92%

Stunning star-field with lovely
spinning planets and great
spaceships.

SOUND 96%

Superb Hubbard soundtrack
and the sampled speech and
sound effects are an inspired
addition.

HOOKABILITY 84%

The first few missions probably
won’t last that long, but the urge
to continue is strong.

LASTABILITY 89%

The game throws down a chal- .
lenge which is to'o strong to
ignore.

OVERALL 57%

OVERALL 90%

A noble attempt at a budget disk
game, unfortunately let down by
the lack of depth and variety.

One of the better shoot ’em ups
this year -and one of the most
polished programs ever.

bmvm vjio mr.

6 powerful home
and business
programs in just
ONE package — at
a price that simply
can't be matched!

This package is
incredible value'

- Daily Mail Home
Computing Guide

Voted Business
Program of the Year
— 1985 AND 1986

Pop . Computing Weekly

WORD PROCESSOR

Compose a letter, set the print-
out options using embedded
commands or menus, use the
mail merge facility to produce
personalised circulars - and
more!

SPREADSHEET

Prepare budgets or tables, total
columns or rows with ease,
copy formulae absolutely or
relatively, move directly to a
specific location, recalculate
automatically - and more!

GRAPHICS

Enter data directly or load data
from the spreadsheet, produce
pie charts, display bar charts
side by side or stacked, overlay
line graphs - and more!

DATABASE

Build up a versatile card index,
use the flexible print-out
routine, do powerful multi-field
sorting, perform all arithmetic
functions, link with the word
processor - and more!

COMMS MODULE

Using a modem you can access
services such as MicroLink and
book rail or theatre tickets,
send electronic mail, telex and
telemessages in a flash - and
more!

LABEL PRINTER

Design the layout of a label with
the easy-to-use editor, select
label size and sheet format,
read in database files, print out
in any quantity - and more!

DATABASE SOFTWARE

Europa House, 68 Chester Road,
Hazel Grove, Stockport SK7 5NY

ORDER FORM

Please send me Mini Office II for the
Commodore 64/128

□ £16.95 cassette

□ £19.95 514" disc

I enclose cheque made payable to
Database Software, or debit my
Access/Visa card:

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Exp. date \

Signed

Name

Address .

ORDER HOTLINE:
TEL: 061-480 0171

SEND TO: Database Software,

Europa House! 68 Chester Road,
Hazel Grove, Stockport SK7 5NY.

I 1

THE STUDIO OF

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A THRILLER TO CHILL YOUR BONES

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FIREBIRD MAIL ORDER, PO BOX 394 LONDON N8 OQR
TELEPHONE HOTLINE 01-348 8618

Published by Firebird Software. A division of British Telecom pic. 1st Floor, 64-76 New Oxford St., London WC1 A 1 PS

It’s a funny old life, isn’t it? This very day, several of the local
school kids who help out with CRASH reviews (they can’t afford
professionals like ZZAP!) have had their exam results after a
taxing few weeks wait in dread of the outcome. I remember it
well. Like them, I also had good ideas of what I’d be when I grew
up (fortunately that hasn’t happened yet), and it wasn’t a a train
driver or a fireman either. No, Lloyd Mangram was going to be
a surgeon, yet here I am - an answerer of letters. You don’t
become a Knight of the British Empire for answering people’s
letters, and while that’s a disappointment to me, I’m sure I’m
much happier as I am, than what I might have been if my ‘A’
level Zoology result had been better. The moral - no matter
what you decide to do, life will teach you better, and that’s no
bad thing.

Enough moralising. I’m paid by the letter answered, so here
goes, starting with Letter of the Month which goes to . . .

MONEY MONEY

MONEY

Dear Lloyd,

I have decided to get a few things
off my chest. I read Gary Penn’s
Editorial (issue 27 July 1 987) and a
smile came to my face. Could it be
possible, original games for a mere
£5.95. No, Elite would go out of
business! I mean If games were to
be sold for six quid, no tie-ins or
licences - just pure originality - it
would be sheer heaven. Because I
am a mere 13,1 don’t have the abil-
ity (cash) to fork out a tenner every
time I feel like it, so I copy games.

I know this is wrong, but isn’t sel-
ling a poor game with a fancy box
also wrong? Okay, there are many
good games, but compared to the
amount of trash on the market, the
population is small.

Something seriously wrong is
going on. For example, you gave
Killed Until Dead 83% for a £15
disk-based price-tag, but £1 5 to
you is totally different to me. You
have claimed before that you know
what it is like to buy games, but
how long ago was that, and how
old were you, but, most impor-
tantly what was your income? I get
£3.00 pocket money a week plus
extra for various jobs about the
home. That comes to £6 a week at
the most. I also have many debts
to older brothers (I value my limbs,
you know). I could buy a MAD
game once a week, but there
aren’t many around and even less
good ones, so I don’t bother. Any-
way, I am getting bored of my 64

sitting in the corner of my room.

I am going to take this opportu-
nity to ask various computer firms
to stop wasting time on tie-ins let’s
have originality and enjoyment! I
want to come back to a game more
than once. Use the 64’s
capabilities and do not abuse our
brains!

I rest my case here, and I hope
you agree with me.

Simon Calvert, Herts

1§8

Well Simon, as most of us here in
ZZAP! possess home computers
other than the C64, we DO realise
what it means to buy software reg-
ularly. However, a game should
not be given a lower percentage
mark simply because it costs more
than some people can afford - as
long as there ’s sufficient gameplay
to warrant the price tag, then the
game will be judged on its merits.
Maybe Software Projects ’ new
mid-price will be the answer to
your problems, especially if they
can continue to release games as
good as Star Paws. By the way, I
really think you should tell your
parents about your brothers
psychotic debt-collecting
methods ... do they really break
your limbs?

Thanks for your letter, Simon,
and hang onto your hat while you
wait for your software prize to
arrive.

Dear Lloyd,

With the appearance of the new
dedicated arcade game machines
like the Sega and Nintendo it looks
like the end of the Home Com-
puter, as most people use their
home computers just for games.
Things would therefore seem to
have come full circle since the
Atari game machines were on the
market.

On second thoughts though,
home computer users will sorely
miss adventure games, music pro-
grams and POKES which wouldn’t
be possible on an arcade machine
and so perhaps the way forward is
with the Atari ST and the Amiga,
two machines which I think will be
the Spectrum and Commodore of
the future. These computers have

• . .. ; ■ • i

equally good sound and graphics
capabilities as the arcade
machines, but can also be used for
adventure and music programs
and be used as word processors.
Prices are already dropping and
hopefully they will be as affordable
as their predecessor.

Daniel Hickman, Derby
PS - Are there any plans to do a
feature on the Amiga and ST?

It comes down to the old argument
- what do you want to use your
machine for. Arcade games
players are catered for extremely
well with the consoles, whereas
the more expensive computers are
far more flexible. By the way -you
can ’t POKE an Amiga or ST game!

THE CASE FOR

lit 1

IS if

i B

®8s

SMS

HI :

Dear Lloyd,

Having read the review of Defender of the Crown, in your last issue,
a thought sprang to mind. There must be thousands of C2N’ers who
can’t afford a disk drive, drooling over such games (myself included)
and wishing they could play a piece of software as good as this -
instead of going without or putting up with long winding multi-loads.

Yes, I know you’ve heard it all before, but why not release games
such as The Pawn, Gunship and Defender of the Crown on car-
tridge. As we know, these exceptional pieces of software only
appear every two to three months, and tape users would be willing
to pay about £20 for a cartridge (I would and I’m unemployed).

I don’t mean that every £15 cassette should be put onto a car-
tridge. Software Houses should take note of the review given by a
magazine such as ZZAP!, and the sales of ‘the disk version’ and
then decide whether or not to release a cartridge. This way the
game would be sure to sell, and software houses would be certain
of making a profit.

If you think about what I’ve said you’ll see it makes a lot of sense.
It means that both the software house and the purchaser get a good
deal which after all is what trade is all about. Anyway, keep up the
good work at ZZAP!

Graham Butler, Inverlocky

A technically-minded friend of mine tells me that there ’s not enough
room in a cartridge for most of the games you mentioned, unless
you add complicated extra hardware to select multiple ‘banks ’ of
memory. A single cartridge will hold 64K of code, but that doesn’t
leave any room for the current screen display and other vital ele-
ments which change during play. In practice most cartridges only
use 16K of code, and even then they cost much more to produce
than a disk. Defender of the Crown needs about 300K - and a 300K
cartridge, with switching circuits, would cost about as much as a
disk drive . . . c’est la vie!

30 ZZAP! 64 October 1 987

ZZAP! BACK?

Dear Lloyd,

Are we getting back to the old,
much preferred type of ZZAP! with
more consistent Gold Medals and
Sizzlers? Thankfully, I think we are!
Mind you it took its time didn’t it.
Better late than never though.

What happened to RE in No 28,
I thought he would be celebrating
with you the GM. He hasn’t run off
because of the Zzaptionnaire
results has he?

Also is SJ just a temporary
reviewer or what? I bet he’s taken
a year off before starting a career.
Just think of the opportunities with
a degree in Chemistry, and the
salaries! I’ve got nothing against
him, in fact I find his opinions and
comments agree most of the time
with mine. But I can’t find the logic
in working your metatarsals off
getting a degree and then . . .
becoming a games reviewer (un-
less like I said he’s only temporary
for 6 or 12 months). Could you
explain in no uncertain terms
please.

Martin Windsor, Birmingham

It’s not really true to say that we’re
going back to an ' old style ’ ZZAP!
by the inclusion of more Sizzlers
and Gold Medals. That’s more of a
reflection of the current state of the
software industry which appears
to be lifting itself out of a recent
bad patch. ZZAPf’s ratings will
always depend on the quality of
the software under review - and
not on some trend or whim.

With regards to Richard Eddy,
he's not run off because of the
questionnaire results, it’s just that
he’s needed in CRASH nowadays
and rarely gets a chance to play
with a Commodore (poor boy!).

Finally, Steve’s reasons for
reviewing computer games are
many and varied. First and
foremost, he’s an ardent games
player and prefers waggling a
joystick to resin research. Also,
contrary to popular belief, the
chemicals industry doesn’t really
pay very well - and finally, he was
made redundant from his last job!

Is®?#®:

Dear Lloyd

I have numbered my questions, so
that you can give one of your
excellent replies to each. How-
ever, before I start off I’d like to
apologise to ‘ozzie’ for me calling
him ugly

2 .

Why not include advertise-
ments on your next demo tape.
They would be interesting, well
received and you would not
have to knock the price up
again. It would pay for itself.

Is it true that music master Rob
Hubbard has tired of the Com-
modore 64 and has moved on
to other, better paying jobs for
the two 16-bit computers? I
hope not, as his work is excel-
lent and would be dearly
missed.

How old are you? I think you
are in your 30’s. Have I insulted
you?

Why are all the letters in yojr
pages so serious? Don’t you
print funny entries or don ’t you
get sent any. To liven things up
here is a joke - Why did the
ear fall out of the
eucalyptus tree? It was dead.
Funny eh?

5. I hope you’re never going to
touch the Cl 6 and +4 again,
even with a barge pole. I would
like to see Amiga coverage
though.

6. Why don’t you have any mail
order adverts. People who
only buy ZZAP! might be mis-
sing out on cheap prices for all
the latest games. In your
reviews why don’t you include
the cheapest price available
and where you can buy it from.
Why not have a regular article
stating the very cheap and free
articles eg Zork 1, 11,111 at £1 .99
each from Log ic Sales, the free

software clubs you can join

■

HHdM Hi T

■

and the free modems you can
get. There are plenty of them
about.

8. Please tell me where I can get
Public Domain software from
and if it is free.

9. How many people on average
enter your competitions. What
are the odds against any one
person winning a competition
if he enters all of them, every
month.

1 0. 1 think it would be a good idea
to include a difficulty rating in
the reviews. Being too hard or
too easy can spoil a game.
Experienced players would
buy the hard ones and begin-
ners would only buy easy

ones.

Finally if ‘Mark’ from London is

reading, please write, you know

my address.

Phill Davies, Mid Glamorgan

1. Watch this space.

2. We know that Rob has done
some work on the Atari ST, but
as for his future plans, well,
he’s gone to America where
the money’s better. Will he
ever return . . . ?

No.

Not if you’re the Koala bear!
We probably won’t touch the
Cl 6 again, but the Amiga?
This issue sees the start of the
new improved ZZAP! mail
order service (see page 108).
The reason that we don’t
include the cheapest prices is
simple . . . we don’t know
them! Therefore we simply
publish the recommended
retail price - a far better idea!

7. We ’ll think about it.

8. We are not at liberty to say.

9. About 500 - 497,589 to 1 .

10. This is not a question.

I LM

ara

6 .

■ % ' .

s ■ m

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BERKSHIRE RG7 4QW (07356) 77288

ZZAP! 64 October 1 987 31

The mutant federation and the enclave cities
are locked in struggle.

Your father the mutant leader has been captured;
you must race your evil cousin, who would be /
King, through the Mazeways against
the dangers they hold.

This is one Mean City.

II8#I1

A one or two player
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COMMODORE 64/128
Cassette £9.95
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Disc £14.95

• .

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ictory House, Leicester Place, London WC2PI 7NB

E Hi

You can obtain your copy of Mean City direct from Quicksilva - Post and packaging FREE ! ! !
Write now and send with a cheque or postal order to:

Quicksilva, Unit 1, Conlon Development, Water Lane, Darwen, Lancs. BB3 2ET.

Name

Address

Town

or Phone: 01-439 0666 - our Credit Card Hotline

Dear Lloyd,

Some points concerning your

mag . . .

1 . Why is everyone so cynical
about the state of software
today? Every time I get your
magazine I can guarantee a
letter will be there moaning
about tie-ins and conversions.
These people get on my
nerves. I know there’s a lot of
bad games coming out, but so
what! There’s enough good
games - Head Over Heels,
Wizball, Last Ninja and Thing
Bounces BackXo name but
four. There’s always been rub-
bishy software and there
always will be. I expect bad
games, especially now as
many good ideas have been
used up and it’s difficult to be
original. What I’m saying is,
you don’t have to buy the bad
games do you? And in all truth
many games that are said to be
bad are okay anyway - take
Metrocross. That got a
bad(ish) review, but I thought it

was very good. Anyway to my
second point . . .

2. The Reviewers. Last Issue Gaz
Penn forewarned us of the
return of GL the witty word
wizard (fat though he is). And
although ‘Nosha’ is my all-
time favourite reviewer, I didn’t
think he’d be taking place of
GP, the Ed! In short why does
Gaz ‘Slap Head’ Penn have to
leave? What’ll happen to his
Black Hole!?! Can I look after
it. Do I ask too many questions
or what!?! Enough of that now
for a serious question. Will Gaz
Liddon be testing games
again? I hope so, I really do.

3. I want to ask you a serious
question Lloyd (another ques-
tion?) and I want a serious ans-
wer. Why don’t we ever get to
see your face? Don’t try to get
out of answering that, LM - we
want to know! It’s getting a bit
silly now, LLoyd. Fancy wear-
ing a bag in CRASH! There
must be good reason for your
shyness. Have you got bad

TOO LATE FOR OFFER?

Dear Lloyd,

You have finally managed to force me into writing a letter. I’m not
writing to tell you what a great magazine you’ve got because if it
wasn't good it wouldn’t sell. I’m writing to complain - as a life long
i subscriber (I missed the first two but managed to order the back-
j numbers before they were sold out), I have enjoyed the great offers
! which appeared just as my subscription was running out (with three
games and a US Gold mug to my name). I have been waiting
patiently for this said offer to appear but it was not forthcoming. But
a letter arrived for me yesterday (5th June) which told me that as I
! was a faithful reader I would save two pounds if I subscribed
immediately. I filled in the cheque and posted the coupon the same
I day, stayed up to watch Scotland being beaten at Rugby, a little
Bonanza and a bash at Elite (I found an unusual ship which does not
. appear on the Flight Grid Scanner and blocks the use of an energy
bomb. It looks a little like a bird; can you tell me what it is? It blasted
me and I can’t find it again - it’s not the first mission). Then, just after
' seven in the morning my edition of ZZAP! arrived with the special
offer. Needless to say I would rather pay the two pounds and have
the free game, especially considering what great games are on offer
- would it be possible for me to pay the extra? (You will probably
receive this letter at the same time as my cheque).

David Dickson, Moray

PS Could it be possible for you to accept photocopies of competi-
tion pages with a small corner cut from a certain page to stop
multiple application (Note all Conservative MPs). Sorry if there are
lots of spelling mistakes, my typing is not very good and I’m too tired
to check it over.

I’m sure if you write, or ring, asking for the subscriptions depart-
ment, they’ll sort out something for you. We’re aware that very
special offers and ordinary offers tend to overlap, there’s no way
around that, but we do try to be fair to subscribers when that hap-
pens. And you can send in photocopies of any competition (unless
otherwise stated), because the comps minion has a good memory
for entrants trying it on more than once!

spots!? Don’t worry, I have too.
(isn’t adolescent life a pain!) So
don’t be shy and come out of
your shell.

4. (And this is a quickie) Why
don’t we see much of
Rockford and Thingy these
days? I miss the little blighters.
Bye for now, Lloyd.

Anthony Joinson, Staffs

In answer to your questions
Anthony ... No, Gary Liddon is
not coming back as a full-time
games reviewer - he will however
continue his technical column, and
hopefully he’ll drop in from time to

time to help us out We presume
that GP will be bringing his black
hole to The Games Machine with
him, so there are no vacancies
there I’m afraid. And finally, at long
last I’m willing to reveal why I never
show my face (gasp!) - no, it’s
nothing extraordinary, just that I’m
a very superstitious person really.
I’ve been so successful (check
with Melissa Ravenflame) by not
appearing, that now I’m afraid to!
And perhaps Rockford feels the
same, but in fact Oliver’s time has
been a bit circumscribed recently,
but he assures me Rockford will
continue. Hah!

A CE OF RHYTHM

Dear Lloyd,

I recently purchased Firebird’s
superb, budget sound system,
Microrhythm. I rushed home to try
it out, but to my surprise when the
game had loaded, US Gold’s Ace
of Aces appeared. I thought this
was odd so I tried the reverse side.
Same again . . . even though the
cassette had Microrhythm written
on it. Mysterious is it not?

Brendon Walker, Hull

What strange happenings. I sup-

I THINK

pose that Ace of Aces and Micro-
rhythm were mastered in the same
place, and the person responsible
for labelling the two products
hadn’t got his mind on the job.
Mind you - you got a ten pound
game for only £1 .99, so I wouldn’t
complain too much. Think of the
poor chap who shelled out a ten-
ner for what he thought was Ace of
Aces and got a Firebird budget
game instead!

THEREFORE I AM

Dear Lloyd,

I had a thought (yes, once in a while

I do). So, I put my little thought

down onto paper (via the typewri-
ter), and here it is . . .

1 . Why don’t you let all at ZZAP!
Towers change places for just
one issue, letting ol’ Oli (no
pun) do a bit of reviewing,
along with say, Carol Kinsey
and Cameron Pound. Maybe

i then we could see

a) The artistic talents of JR on
the cover of ZZAP! 64 and
maybe even

b) his UB40

2. Why can’t you stick all of the
competitions on one sheet or
leaflet, because I do so miss
those teensy-weensy little bits
of my ZZAP!

3. I know this is a 64 mag, but
can’t you please put aside a
page or two to the incredible (I
use the word wisely) Amiga.

4. I admit it, I’m a half-wit, but
what does PBM stand for?

5. Lloyd, you (and the Rrap) are

the greatest, so keep up the
good work. (ZZAP! could
could be a little more mature,
we’re not all six years old you
know!)

6. I read that you are trying to set
up a holiday fund. Why not get
the money off Gary Liddon?
He did sell his Amiga to Andy
Braybrook, didn’t he?

Simon Calvert, Hertfordshire

1. Very droll

2. Planning a magazine is a very
difficult job (ask Mr Brennan!)

- but as this is a regular
request we’ll see what we can

k do

3. Keep your eyes peeled - it’s
only a matter of time

4. Play By Mail (see page 83)

5. Thank You

6. Yes. He did sell his Amiga to Mr

Braybrook, but he then spent
all the proceeds on his tele-
phone bill | ^

LM \w*

ZZAP! 64 October 1987 33

SUBSCRIPTION WORRIES

Dear Lloyd,

I have a point to make about sub-
scriptions which I think will be on
the minds of other ZZAP! readers.

I have recently considered sub-
scribing to ZZAP!, especially as
there have been many great offers.
However, I recalled when my
friend, being an Amstrad owner,
subscribed to AMTIX. All was well
for him and he was pleased with
the deal, however after three
months, he got a letter informing
him that AMTIX had finished and
for the rest of his subscription time
he would be sent a magazine
called Computing with the
Amstrad. All seemed well until he
received the magazine, which in
our opinion was scandalous, with
a maximum of ten pages of
reviews. I have considered sub-
scribing, but I would like your
assurance that the same thing will
not happen to me.

Keep up the good work, and
please introduce more arcade
information into your great mag.

M Gaughan, Preston

It sometimes happens that a
magazine has to cease publication
for any number of reasons. In the

case of AMTIX , the title was
handed over to Database Publica-
tions and effectively absorbed into
their existing Computing with the
Amstrad as an AMTIX section.
Obviously, once that had hap-
pened, Newsfield had no further
control over what happened to the
title. Part of the agreed handover
was that AMTIX subscribers would
be looked after, either offered a
refund or the option of having their
subscription changed to Comput-
ing with the Amstrad.

There are no guarantees in life,
you know, so it’s impossible to
give assurances, but certainly the
market pressure that forced
AMTIX to be closed are not affect-
ing ZZAP! in any way. Indeed,
monthly sales of ZZAP! have
increased by 10,000 over the last
six months, making it firmly the
best-selling Commodore

magazine in Britain by quite a
league. It must have years of life
left in it yet, Mr Gaughan! By the
way, if you turn to page 85, you
should find enough arcade infor-
mation to keep you happy for
some time.

FOOTBALL MANAGEMENT

Three Classic Football Management Strategy Games for all enthusiasts. Each of these QUAL-
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PREMIER LEAGUE

A COMPREHENSIVE LEAGUE GAME - Play all teams home & away. Full squad details all teams.
Injuries, Team styles, In-match substitutes, Named & recorded goal scorers, Comprehensive trans-
fer market, 5 Skill levels, Financial problems, Team Training, Continuing Seasons, Save game,
Opposition Select Strongest Team and MUCH MUCH MORE! 64/128k Commodore £6.50

WORLD CHAMPIONS

ACOMPLETE WORLD CUP SIMULATION -From the first friendlies, qualifying stages, tour matches
and on to the FINALS - Select from squad of 25 players, 2 In-Match substitutes allowed, Discipline
table, 7 Skill levels and MUCH MUCH MORE! Includes a full text match simulation with Injuries,
Bookings, Sending off, Corners, Free kicks, Match timer, Injury time, Extra time, Goal times and
MORE! 64/1 28k Commodore £7.95

EUROPEAN II

CAPTURES THE FULL ATMOSPHERE OF EUROPEAN COMPETITION - Home & away legs, Away
goals count double (if drawn), Full penalty shoot out (with SUDDEN DEATH), 7 Skill levels, 2 subs
allowed, Pre-match team news, Discipline table, Full team & substitute selection, Disallowed Goals
and MUCH MUCH MORE! Plus FULL TEXT MATCH SIMULATION. 64/128k Commodore £7.95

FANTASTIC VALUE - Buy any 2 games deduct £2.00; buy all 3 games deduct £3.00
All games are available for IMMEDIATE DESPATCH by 1st CLASS POST and include FULL

INSTRUCTIONS (add £1.00 outside UK)

From EAJ SOFTWARE, Room C3, 37 Westmoor Road, ENFIELD, Middlesex, EN3 7LE

AT LAST!

COMMODORE

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lost^H

MAGAZINE

Dear Lloyd,

Since the sudden and disappoint-
ing demise of LM, a spare £1.00
each month has been jingling in my
pocket, so this month I decided to
buy CRASH (issue 42). Reading
through the Forum I came across
some interesting facts. Why were
we ZZAP! readers not given such
an item, on LM, as that in CRASH.
I’m sure many people are asking
just where did it go wrong? I
understand that you are under no
obligation to tell us anything, but it
would be nice. Up until the begin-
ning of June I was under the impre-
ssion that my newsagent was just
very slow with deliveries and I felt
rather stupid receiving a string of
negative replies from every news-
agent in Stockport - even more so
when I discovered that LM had
passed away.

Why were we, the public, not
given the slightest inkling as to the
reasons behind LM’s sudden non-
existence. Not even a mention in
passing was made and in fact the
issue was avoided like the plague.
Come on Lloyd, given your
namesake a decent burial within
your hallowed pages.

If this seems pointless, perhaps
you could answer a few questions

1. Why should the producer of
the best selling Commodore
and Spectrum magazines
allow its sister mag to drown?

2. If as you say, LM’s readership
was roughly three times that
of ZZAP! why couldn’t it help
itself?

3. Why suddenly after a few
teething problems was LM
scrapped. If this was because

of money, why has Newsfield
already decided to release
another more expensive com-
puter magazine?

4. What were the results of LM’s
questionnaire? LM was fresh
and exciting and witty and it
had potential. At least 80% of
the lads in my class read their
own or my copy of LM.

Bring back LM please. 1 await a
sensible response to this plea.

David Leicester, Stockport

Relating news of LM’s demise was
a decision for the editor to take,
and at the time Gary Penn either
didn ’t want to (or forgot!) - 1 wasn ’t
privvy to his thoughts on the mat-
ter. LM’s readership was certainly
not three times that of ZZAP!’s
(currently some 230,000), but
sadly, although the sales were
doing quite well and picking up
very encouragingly, the advertis-
ing revenue was not. LM was not a
cheap magazine to produce, with
an editorial team more than twice
that of ZZAP!, and lots more
expense in photography costs,
licence fees and reproduction -
hardly ' teething ’ troubles, just the
old one of money. Why you should
think The Games Machine is ‘more
expensive ’ I have no idea. I assure
you it will cost, per issue, about a
seventh that of LM.

We all thought LM was a great
mag (obviously), but it could never
have survived without advertising
revenue, which was thought to be
available but turned out not to be
- or at least, not fast enough to
save it.

SEQUELS

Dear Lloyd,

I am absolutely fed up about the
way that software houses bring
out a good game (for example Spy
Vs Spy), and then bring out sequel
upon sequel upon sequel after it.
It’s ruining the software industry
because each sequel is worse
than the one before. Can ’t the soft-
ware houses think of any new,
original software to bring out? Yet
they still expect us to pay the same
price for the sequel as for the first

! in the series. It’s all the same in
each of the sequel cases that the
sequels are just so boring and rep-
etitive in the aim of the game. So
come on software houses. Pull
your socks up!

Damon Smith, Watford

The thing is, the blame lies with
you. As long as you keep buying
sequels, software companies will
keep on releasing them.

It’s time this failed surgeon took to the hills (so much cooler in
this weather than the hot, steamy centre of tropical Ludlow)
and watered his limp plants, plastered his dry throat and
relaxed for a month (well, a day anyway). If there’s any point
about Commodore software, hardware, firmware, jollyware,
badware or anywhere that you simply have to get off your chest
before you burst, then I’m your man. Write to LLOYD MAN-
GRAM, ZZAP! RRAP, PO BOX 10, LUDLOW, SHROPSHIRE SY8
1 DB - and do it quick.

»V£ . . .

«$ce.

34 ZZAP! 64 October 1987

^wwivtvi

eight planets of the Hyturian System
tudinous, swarming, hordes of odious S
tope, STARFOX. The most advanced figfii
rtunately, so tong is it since war raged w
M figher pilots are either senile, bedri
ed is someone young, brave, and with a
ione like YOU!!!

machine

1? ft

. . i ,

fill

_ IMIliXn"

■k

*•£*•** £*£*•* £*•£*£*££*£•££♦£•£•’ I
:-ss : : :> : : v

..... -isEtssiiS &‘SSSS-'~ Sdi

ce/y ia^s from OCEAN the

that one of ^~gde i hirt»es’,.‘h£one is sp where the <na Plug/m?' them

sanSSSsa^~^^

OMP

■

/. Name 15 OCEAN games
that have been released
for the 64 (games under
the IMAGINE logo don 't

5, The main character in
Renegade is a vigilante \
but can you name the
infamous vigilante who
became a folk hero in
New York in 1984?

2. Who writes most of the
music heard on OCEAN
and IMAGINED games?

Simple? Good. Now, complete
the following sentence in 15
words or less: ‘If I don’t win the
OCEAN Renegade arcade
machine I’m going to .. .

Entries should be sent to, the I
WANT TO BE A RENEGADE
COMPETITION, ZZAPl
TOWERS, PO BOX 10, LUDLOW
SHROPSHIRE, S Y8 1DB, to arrive
no later than October the 8th.
Make sure that you enclose your
full name arid address, and a day-
time telephone number (if possi-
ble). •

3. How many OCEAN
- games have received
the ultimate accolade of
a ZZAPl Gold Medal?

4. Of all the OCEAN
character licenses,
which game featured
famous burger bar?

Once again the time has Borne to face the challenge!

The Commodore 64 micro has certainly played host to a fair share of shoot ’em ups
during its five year history. So, as a long-overdue tribute to the humble blaster,
Julian Rignall took a trip down to the archives to bring you his personal view of the
greatest shoot ’em ups that have appeared during the Commodore’s brief, blit
bright history.

n hat genre we know and love so well, the shoot ’em up, had its
humble beginnings in the mid ’70s, when a black and white

video game appeared which required the player to shoot a

square as it moved across the screen. A year or so later, technology
advanced and a new company called Atari released two one-on-one
games, Tank and Air Combat , which are archaic by today’s
standards, but still oddly enjoyable.

After a series of pretty ghastly
space shoot ’em ups (Exidy’s Star
Wars influenced Star Fire being
the most notable), the most
famous shoot ’em up of them all
was released - Bally/Midway’s
Space invaders. This was the turn-
ing point of the video game, as mil- iZA

lions were drawn to the arcades to |f|
see and battle the Invaders. The
machine became a household
name virtually overnight, and from
there on the shoot ’em up was to .Jjjtl
become one of the most popular l|jj|
video game formats. There was no
looking back.

Can anyone cast their mind
back five years and remember
whose game can claim the ■ fllgg

accolade of being the first
Commodore shoot ’em up? The
exact one is shrouded in the mists jl

of time - but it’s bound to have
been an inferior arcade clone.

During the early days, when the 64
had only just appeared on the |pt

market, shoot ’em up fans were

gleefully purchasing inferior Space /

invader , Centipede and Scramble /v/

clones in huge quantities. Blurbs A /

boasting ‘100% machine code /*\ / \

fast action - hi-res flicker-free /

sprite action ’were commonplace, y— nrnne

but usually the game itself was

pretty poor. However, that was the 000000800

standard, and those lucky enough

to be able to afford a Commodore
would quite happily sit for 1 5
minutes while their new Scramble
clone loaded.

My earliest encounter with a
Commodore blaster was in early
’83 when I went to see a friend’s

friend’s newly bought 64. Oddly
ertough, that person happened to
be John Twiddy, who went on to
program The Last Ninja. His only
game was Jeff Minter’s Attack of
the Mutant Camels, a strange
horizontally scrolling Defender
game with original aspects. The
tricky control method and great
sound made quite an impression,
but Broderbund’s slightly older
Choplifter, which I first saw at
roughly the same time, really made
me gasp. The objective was to fly
behind enemy lines and rescue
captives, all the while avoiding
enemy tanks, planes and

► Rabbit’s archaic Annihilator
claimed to be a Defender game
- it doesn’t look like or play like
one though

EXTRR SHIPS

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helicopters. Choplifter became an
arcade game early last year, and is
also available on the Sega Master
System - although the difference
between the old and new versions
is quite considerable!

Another pair of classics which
evoke memories and a load of
laughs are Rabbit’s Paratroopers
and Annihilator. The former was an
extremely nasty game which gave
the player control of a machine
gun which was used to shoot the
parachutes off soldiers as they
baled out of passing aeroplanes. If
enough troopers managed to land,
they built a big tank and blew up

your gun. The graphics and sound
were laughably bad, but the
gameplay was superb - classic
sicko stuff.

‘ Patrol the rocky terrain of a
distant planetoid, defending
humanoids from the clutches of
hovering Landers, Baters,
Bombers, Pods and Swarmers’
was the game described on
Annihilator’s inlay. It sounded just
like Defender, but the only thing
that the two games have in
common is a scrolling floor.
Annihilator* s graphics and sound
were terrible, and the gameplay
was incredibly simplistic!

US Gold’s Beach Head created
quite a sensation when it
appeared. The four level arcade
war game boasted some
impressive graphics and sound,
and I remember a small crowd
gathered in Aberystwyth’s
computer shop staring at a
monitor with their mouths hanging
open. The computer press loved
it, and it went on to sell in vast
quantities - albeit undeservedly
so. The gameplay was a little too
simplistic - something that you
didn’t discover until you got it
home and started playing!

T wo fast working programmers,
Tony Crowther and Steve Evans
produced a series of great shoot
’em ups for Sheffield-based
Alligata between iate 1983 and
early 1984. Tony Crowther’s Loco
created quite a sensation with its
great music and gameplay, and
Killerwatt, an original scroller in
which an attack of whales, light
bulbs and ducks was endured
became a cult hit. The less prolific
Evans produced a Phoenix clone
called Eagle Empire which
mirrored the arcade game
perfectly, and an excellent
shooting adventure called Rocket
Roger in which the player explored
a denizen-filled cave system in

► Back in ’82 Broderbund’s Choplrfterwas wowing computer fanatics. Originally available on ROM cartridge, it cost

an incredible £35!

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Next month, Julian takes a few more rose-tinted
peeks at the shoot ’em up catalogue, taking up the
story from where ZZAP! began (I really think that
we’re all too young for this nostalgia - The Ed.).

cartridge at the ridiculous price of
£25! That was a real shame, as
only a handful of people ever got
to play it. Also available at the
same time (and price) was the
official conversion of Star Wars,
which wasn’t too bad. Luckily, '
Domark will soon be releasing their
own conversion of the game, and
hopefully it’ll retain all the
playability of the coin-op original.

Jeff Minter was a veritable hive
of industry during 1 984, producing
a series of very impressive shoot
’em ups through the year.
Revenge of the Mutant Camels
followed on from AMC, and
introduced some of the whackiest
sprites and zaniest gameplay ever
seen on a home micro! This time
around the player took the role of
the camel, and tackled a wide
variety of alien forms, including
‘Rubber Keys’ (Spectrumstoyou),

I RATA (spell that backwards),
Rizzlas, Telephone Boxes and Pac
Men -amongst other things! Next
came Sheep in Space, a slightly
more ‘serious’ game (if that’s the
correct term). In this classic the
player took control of a flying
sheep, capable of spitting deadly
bonios of doom at any attackers.
The objective was to fly down a
horizontally scrolling passageway
and guard huge Ecosystems from
attack by alien craft. The action
was reminiscent of Defender, but
there were plenty of original
aspects to the gameplay. The best
game to come out of the Llamasoft
stable during ’84 was definitely
Ancipital, a totally original shoot
’em up adventure in which a
strange beastie, half man/half
goat, was guided through 100
screens of well-weird psychedelic
action. A ‘Phil Collins Emulator’,
outlandish sprites, strange gravity

► Virgin’s horizontally scrolling Falcon Patrol proved popular - and
deservedly so

which a severely hassled bird built
a nest. After that came the sequel
to Loco, the graphically and
sonically impressive Suicide
Express.

Still unsettled, Crowther left
Gremlin and joined Quicksilva,
where he produced the superb,
but sadly bugged Gryphon.

mastering, and Quicksilva never
bothered to remaster. This was a
shame really, as Gryphon was
definitely the best Crowther
program of them all. He followed-
up with Black Thunder, an
unashamed copy of Suicide
Express with nothing more than
different graphics and sound to
distinguish between the two.

One of the best games of 1 984
was Novagen’s Encounter, an
extremely fast, first-person 3D
Battlezone type game with a
variety of hostile craft to destroy.
The gameplay was absolutely
superb, and I can remember
jumping up and down in my seat
when I first played it! Encounter
was highly acclaimed by both
Personal Computer Games and
C&VG, but was sadly missed by
many- maybe because it was one
of those games that didn’t look
impressive while static.

Steve Lee’s Virgin releases,
Falcon Patrol I & II, were two
horizontally scrolling games of
some note. Both were set in the
Middle East and gave the player
control of a fleet of Harrier Jump
Jets, used to shoot down enemy
planes and helicopters. At the
time, the scrolling on both was
considered smooth, although
when I played the second one a
couple of months ago, it was far
from that! They’re both still fun,
though.

A particularly annoying situation
occurred when Parker Brother’s
released the official conversion of
Gyruss. It was a very, very faithful
conversion, incorporating some
great music and just the right feel
- but was only available on ROM

and superlative gameplay pushed
this head and shoulders above the
opposition.

Ancipital may have been one of
the best shoot ’em ups of ’84, but
by far the most controversial was
Access ’ Raid Over Moscow,
which was released in Britain
under the auspices of US Gold.
The object of this five-part game
was to set Russian defences back
20 years by penetrating the Iron
Curtain and destroying the robot
which controlled the reactor room
beneath the Kremlin - the main
power source of the entire Soviet
defence. The mission involved
flying a space shuttle inside enemy
lines, battling through land
defences, shooting the guards
outside the Kremlin and finally
entering the reactor room to
destroy the robot. The game’s
right-wing bias caused an outrage,
and some members of the
computer public over-reacted
beyond belief. CND supporters
gathered outside the US Gold
headquarters and protested that
the game’s militarist tendencies
made war acceptable to
youngsters. All of this was really

quite ludicrous - apart from the
fact that the plot was completely
unbelievable, it was after all only a
game.

. . . .

siigi

Preview The Future!

ctca LiH FIGHTER

s\ iitiiin ravei ii »n

PROJECT

WmMi

Stealth Fighter. . . the hottest topic of conversation in aviation
circles today. Space Age technology and engineering make
these aircraft virtually undetectable by enemy radar.
Stealth Fighters are believed to be in operation, flying the
most sensitive missions, flown by a superior class of pilot. You
can experience that thrill of flying a revolutionary aircraft,
previewing the edge of the future.

PROJECT: STEALTH FIGHTER. Another brillant simulation
from MicroProse. Available for the Commodore 64/12 8K.
Cassette £14.95. Disk £19.95.

PROSE

Please send

Name (block capitals)

copy/ies of Project: Stealth Fighter CBM 64/128 □ Cassette £14.95 □ Disk £19.95 □ Further details.

Address.

Post Code.

I enclose £.

or debit my Access/Visa card. Expiry date

including 55p P+P. Cheques payable to MicroProse Software Ltd.

No.

MicroProse Ltd., 2 Market Place, Tetbury, Gloucestershire GL8 8DA. UK. Tel: (0666) 54326. Tlx: 43422 MPS/UKG.

Follow me unto Phalsberg, fellow Wizardlings, as we check out the latest French
numerette from Infogrames/Ere Informatique. And sing along with our
nostalgic look at another role playing game - The Bard's Tale. Goggle at the C64
graphics for Knight Ore , wonder at the long list of tips, and ... get reading!

Phalsberg provides not only a good
selection of skill ratings, but also a
means of concentrating on certain
categories. JThe program adds
bonus points to the marks gained
by throwing the dice according to
the order of selection, with higher
marks being awarded to the
categories you throw for first.
What this means is that, for exam-
ple, you may wish to achieve as
high a 'Strength' rating as possible
for your character and, by choos-
ing to throw for this category first,
you stand a better chance.

Once you've 4 assigned skill
ratings to your character, you give
it a Name, a Race (Human, Dwarf,
or Elf) and, if the character is
Human, a Profession. There are
four professions (or 'Casts' as the
program calls them) - Thief,
Warrior, Magician, and Cleric.
Each Cast requires a particular
balance of skills, so for example a
character can only become a Thief
if its dexterity rating exceeds 11
points. At this point the
significance of being able to throw
for extra points for a certain skill
becomes obvious.

Infogrames/Ere Informatique, £14.95, disk only

Energy and Charisma are
determined by the product or sum
of the two previous skills. Each
skill plays a certain role in the
game - for example. Charisma
influences the outcome of
encounters with other characters,
while Intelligence dictates how
many languages you can speak,
and therefore how many
characters you can talk to.

Experience points play a special
role - you can use them to 'top up'
any other skill rating which you
may consider to be dangerously
low. You accumulate more
experience points during the game
as you win battles and overcome
obstacles.

Once you've created your
character, you SAVE it onto a pre-
formatted disc. Make sure you've
got one before you start, as the
program won't let you play
without one. This disc keeps track
of your character, enabling you to
SAVE it tor another day - very
important in RPG's where you
may spend a lot of time and effort
building up a character,
particularly its 'Experience
Points'.

of tally-hoing across tne
countryside in search of treasure,
monsters, and all manner of
mayhem.

In most RPGs, skills are set at the
beginning of the game by a throw
of the dice, and Phalsberg is no
exception - a list of skills (see
below) is flashed on the screen and
you then have a chance to 'throw'
for high scores in each skill
category.

MANY SKILLS MAKE
LIGHT WORK

Because a character's skills are
incredibly important during a
game like this, it's good to see that

trying their best
P§»\ to come up with

IbNU a winner, and

m Jj I the Wiz keeps

)) ^ v ■ 4 C being rude about
’( ^ Is their efforts. This

Wl^pyx M 5 is all very
T embarrassing, so

imagine my delight when Infog
supremo David Crossweller rang
to say that 'At last' they had a game
that was 'Right up my street
Phalsberg is a role-playing game
in which you create a character
whose future is determined both
by your own decisions during the
game and also by the character's
skills. The gameplay involves a lot

MAX POINTS

Constitution 15
Life Points 1 5
Energy (l) + (2)
Strength 10
Protection 10
Reflex/Dexterity 10
Intelligence 10
Beauty 5

Charisma (7) + {S)
Money 1000
Experience 10

IN PLAY • • «

The game loads with a pleasantly
programmed rendition of Pictures
at An Exhibition. Once you've
created your character, however,
the . . . er . . . well, let's faeJBI
the problems start.

Problem • number one & jjlfre
appearance of the display. Once

ZZAP! 64 October 1 987 , 4

:<*SSS>S*W

iandragore, and a
host of other quasi-RPG's, we have
a clumsily designed alternative
character set trying to present a
series of graphic symbols that
convey location information.
Well it can be argued that we've
come to expect this sort of display

- after all, we've seen it in some of
the Ultima games, so it should be
good enough for Infogrames and
good enough for us.

Trouble is, when you combine
that text-based graphics screen
with an atrociously formatted text
window underneath, the display
begins to look very untidy. The
Wiz doesn't like messy screens, not
if he's going to have to look at
them for a long time. Today's
software should be able to do
better than this.

PLUS DE

DDADT TJM17TTI7C
Ji JElkVr JO Mm* JwXti. JQ Jl JL JZlwP • • •

But even at this point, I hear you
cry, the game should not be
beyond redemption. Pretty it may
not be, but how doth it play? At
this point, we encounter
problemette numero deux. This is
la problemette de la traduction, or

- ahem - a slight probby about the
old translation, okay yah?

The translation problems occur
in two ways, and both affect the
gameplay. First, the manual is
unclear in points and mentions
commands (such as Hunt) that do
not appear in the program. Since
you meet many 'Huntable' crea-
tures, this omission was baffling

and frustrating. Also, there are
commands that differ in the man-
ual to the way they appear in the
program - the manual says 'Heal',
the program expects Treat'. You
have to exercise the old grey mat-
ter to work these things put. Sec-
ondly, the Meen display itself is
not always, very dear. If you look
at; th| sdreSlh»itou can see that
there are a small batch of
abbreviated commands (see below
for further details) starting, top
right, with Star. This is short for
'Start', which the manual says
means 'Leave' — you and I^would
normally say 'Move'. Not very
clear.

The display also boasts some
very awkward messages, such as
'You Are Carrying: Any' (any
what??), and often refers to
objects that simply cannot be
found or examined. 'A Goblin
appears before you, he is carrying
a purse' declares the program
excitedly. Sweating with
exhilaration, you waggle your
joystick and select 'Atta' (for
Attack) and then 'Gobi' (for
Goblin). You succeed brilliantly,
the Goblin is dead, the Goblin has
disappeared, and . . . ooops ... so
has the purse. How frustrating!

MORE -SERIOUS
PROBLEMETTES

These, however, are still little
niggles, aren't they? I mean, the
game may be a bit on the annoying
side, but there's a lot to it and we
should be able to put up with its

funny little habits, unfortunately,
there are worse problems .

The game is played using a
system of menus controlled by the
joystick. Each turn you select one
of six menu headings. These are
Star, Draw, Orde, Text, Ques,
Powe, Auto, and Save. Star, as
we've already mentioned, puts
you on the road from one place to
the next. Draw gives you a piccy;
Text clears the screen and shows
you the last screenful of text
messages that would otherwise
have been scrolled into oblivion
outside the small response
window; Ques enables you to
question other characters; Powe
tells you your status; Auto gives
you piccies without having to ask
for them with Draw; Save saves.
Orde is the one to watch, however.
It means 'Enter a command' and if
you select it you receive a further
sub-menu with a list of verbs. This
list, as I've mentioned, differs
slightly from the manual which
can be confusing in itself.
However, the problems really
begin when you select a verb that
requires an object, such as
Examine. You then get a further
sub-sub-menu with a list sub-sub-
sub-menus. Thus you might enter
Exam, then select Place from the
list, and from the final menu select
Sanctuary, since you have
discovered a sanctuary nearby and
would like to Examine it.

At this point, the proggy gets
very wobbly. For the most part, the
responses to your actions are short
and uninteresting. In search of
excitement, therefore, I selected

TUC RADA'C TAT F

A A iJu A) lv VJ 3 A Jt\. I i r,

iis is a classic
jlRPG from Elec-
h tronic Arts, the
" ,US company

< who have

i recently set up in

< the UK and

< whose products
^should now be

more readily available. To celebr-
ate their arrival, and also to pro-
vide a pointed comparison with
Phalsherg, the Wiz records some
brief notes about The Bard's
Tale

Unlike a lot of computer RPG's,
this game takes place in a large,
mappable town. There are no
forests or mountains to wade
through - just endless winding
streets full of forbidding doorways
and dark alleys. The city of Skara
Brae holds monsters of all sorts at
every comer, but you must defeat
them all if you are going to
dethrone the evil Mangar and
Irestord peace to the city.

' ^presentation of this- prog- J
: . A small graphics

ies an attractive
into the street before
on the right the text
asts smooth-scrolling,
ous messages giving you
ctions on. what to do

You can have up to six members
in your party drawn from seven
different races. These are: Human;
Elf; Dwarf; Hobbit; Half- Elf; Half-
Orc; and Gnome. In addition there
are ten available professions, or
'character classes' ranging from
Rogue through Bard to Wizard,
with each #a racier having 1 1

attributes. And if that's not
enough for you, there are also ten
categories of objects (including
musical instruments) and hordes
of monsters, ranging from Kobolds
to Blue Dragons.

The best thing about The Bard's
Tale, apart from the atmosphere
(chilly at night, especially) and the

1 1 i

Barb’s

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121

Enter whilst in a village, and then
- on a whim - selected Objects
instead of Places. I then selected
Berries. The program bravely
attempted to enter the Berries,
triumphantly displayed SYNTAX
ERROR LINE 1234987 (or words
to that effect), and then, realising
that I had tricked it, went into a
sulk that only a reset could cure.

Ah well. Us adventurers are
positively crying out for a good
role playing game. The fact is,
whatever the pundits may say,
that RPG's are not hard to
program. That's why so many
apparently mediocre

programmers get involved in them
and so many excellent
programmers seek greater
challenges. Now if someone like
Mike Singleton were to tackle the
RPG problem. I'm sure we'd see
something exciting.

Phalsberg is superficially
complex, offers a large number of
well thought out features, and
completely fails to implement
them satisfactorily. Infogrames say
that many of the problems I've
discussed will be checked out, and
it's therefore possible that a new
version may be released. If it is,
then I'll let you know - in the
meantime, it may be 'up my
street', but I'm afraid I won't be
opening the door!

ATMOSPHERE

INTERACTION

CHALLENGE

OVERALL

30 %

38 %

58 %

47 %

large range of spells and other fea-
tures, is the way in which the pro-
gram makes it easy to plan strat-
egy. In each encounter with the
enemy you have to work out how
to get your party to work together
in the most effective way, consid-
ering such factors as their position
(foremost is first to be attacked),
their fighting tactics (Spells?
Swords? Even hiding away!), and
the way in which they support
each other.

Although the action is non-stop,
the program never rushes your
decision making, giving you time
to think and marshall your forces.
This increases the challenge of the
game and the satisfaction of win-
ning a fight, since you feel (quite
rightly) that the outcome was a
direct result of your tactics rather
than a simple fall of the dice.

Interesting features include the
ability to coerce monsters to join
your party and fight for you (by
magic, of course), and the use of
the Bard's musical prowess to stir
your fighters into action and add
strength to their sword-arms. Of
course you also get to hear the
music, which, although not very
impfessive by today's standards,
still adds to the adrenaline rush as
you march into battle. *

Bad points include the appal-
lingly slow disk accesses (espe-
cially when you're preparing a
SAVE disc - a task which seems to
take half a morning), and a shor-
tage of general commands apart

attractively packaged.

As a rule, RPG's have always
been the poor relations on the
computer games scene, but The
Bard's Tale - although it's nearly
three years old - manages to put
up an excellent fight.

from fighting and casting spells -
though there are some transac-
tions to be carried out in various
emporiums throughout the town.
What there is, however, is
extremely well presented and
programmed, very playable, and

WIZARD'S MAILBAG

Hitchhiker's still stands up pretty well
against the opposition . If you ' "re-
thinking of spending that sort of money
on it you won't go far wrong. On the
other hand, if you’ve read the hook,
seen the film, and heard the tapeyfi®.
you really want to play the game?
Mightn 't you get more satisfaction out
of something new ? Like Guild of
thieves? Perhaps not. . . .

First, a sad letter from Pat
Winstanley of Adventure
Contact and, following that, some
good news. As most readers will
know. Adventure Contact is a
small magazine dealing with
problems involved in creating and
marketing games written using
the Quill, GAC, Genesis and pure
ingenuity. Time and finance have
meant that Pat has had to drop the
magazine, but at the time of going
to press I understand that it has
been taken over and will continue
publishing. More news when I get
it.

MmiiM

COME ON
INFOCOM . . . !

'Every month', writes
Cobb, T look in those few famous
pages in ZZAP! (the Adventure
Section), and find yet another
Infocom classic, with yet another
improved parser, and yet another
massive price tag (always between
£25 and £40). Come on, Infocom,'
I know you need the money, but
don't we all? I think you'll sell
loads more if you bring all your
titles down to a half-reasonable
price like £19.99, like Magnetic
Scrolls . . . '

THUMBS
DOWN . .

Samee Khan writes in to
complain that the tip for Zzzz . . .
(Thumb a lift at the road) printed
in a previous issue doesn't work.
The Wiz isn't sure about this, but I
think you'll find that THUMB A
LIFT works,, okay at the road,
provided ydfi enter it when the
Sandman is passing. Daniel Bond
of Greater Manchester seems to
agree . . .

ADVENTURE

PREVIEW!

Perhaps it 's worth noting that Infocom
have of course been taken over by
Activision, and Activision have
recently moved into profit by re-
targetting their product at the lower
end of the market. There's no doubt
that you will always have to pay for
quality, but I wouldn 't rule out a price
reduction on Infocom titles, or some
form of special deal, in the future.
More a case of ' come on Activision'
than come on Infocom.

. . . AND
THUMBS UP

The Wiz is proud to present a sneak preview of Knight Ore's C64
graphics. Although these are not quite finished , it looks as
though the quality will be rather better than
Level 9's past efforts.

'In one of the earliest issues of
ZZAP! you did a review of
Hitchhiker's Guide', writes Mark
Short, 'After reading the book,
seeing the television series, and
hearing the tape, I wonder if it still
stands up well against software
like The Pawn and other Infocom
classics like Bureaucracy. If you
could tell me what it's like and the
sort of review you would give it
now, I would be grateful . . . '

MANUAL

HANKY-

PANKY?

'I have recently received the
incredible Graphic Adventure
Creator, Well, at least I think it's
incredible - you see I have
somehow -M misplaced
instruction manual. Please, if
anyone could photocopy or send
me an instruction book I would he
very very grateful.' Thus writes
Scott Robson of Australia, Scott,
I hope you will forgive the Wiz for
suggesting that the best pk#&'tj|
write for a new manual i %
Incentive Software, And I wodgj
also suggest that you enclose an
International Reply Coupon. After
all, if someone is going to go to the
trouble of sending you a manual
you might at least pay for the
postage! You should be aware

This is always an interesting question
- if a game were to be released
nowadays, how would we rate it? At
this point the Wiz has to admit to
sacrilege - I didn't actually enjoy
Hitchhiker's all that much. Don't get
I think it's an excellent

me wrong
game, very well designed, and worthy
of the success it has achieved. If that
doesn 't make sense, remember that my
own feelings about a game are exactly
that -my own. I hope that after several
years of reviewing games, however,
that 1 can tell when I'm being eccentric
and when I'm following the popular
taste, and in the case of Hitchhiker's I
reckon I'm being a little eccentric.
Doubtless Mike Woodroffe of
Adventuresoft will contend that that
I’m always eccentric, but there you
go . . .

Back to the point, however. I think

;lpi

'Dear Wiz . . . Heeilp!' -stop right
there! The Wiz regretfully has to
repeat his sad but necessary
warning ... I cannot -reply in
person to cries for* help. That's
what the Clever Contacts are there
for t use them; well! The Wiz
would gladly enter into
correspondence, but if you saw the
number of letters that arrive each
month, you'd realise why it is an
impractical proposition. Sorry,
fellow Wizzes, but please save
your stamps and direct your pleas
to those better able to answer them
promptly.

LAW

BREAKERS!

'Me and a few of my adventuring
mates have written an adventure
using GAC. Please could you tell
me if we would be breaking any
laws by selling it ourselves by
post.'

Aha, a good point , Lee Ricketts of
Middlesborough. All Wizzes should
realise that there are strict rules of
conduct, and not a few legal issues,
involved in selling by mail-order.
Luckily, help is at hand in the form of
your local Citizens Advice Bureau.
CAM’s are usually able to offer free
(but limited) legal advice via their
resident solicitor. Ring them up,
explain the situation, and ask for an
appointment.

Lee also asks 'If we send the
program to a major software
company, who would name the retail
price. ' Well, Lee, the software house
would fix the price, and you and I
would name it - we would call it
' outrageous 7

WIZARD
TIPS! .-V#

The Wiz has got a real bumper crop
this month. Firstly I'll respond to
repeated requests for Infocom tips
by shedding some light on
Hollywood Hijinx and others, give
you some start-up clues on Guild
of Thieves, plus other assorted
nuggets worth more to an anxious
adventurer than a caveful of
Cavezats. All this brought to you
courtesy of The Wiz, John
Hogarth, Russell Wallace, Nick
Carter, Darren Hebelen, and
Frekrik Lindelof.

HOLLYWOOD HIJINX

Remove lenscap from projector,
turn it on, focus it, then put file in
and look at screen. This will then
you the name of a tune to play
•;^|||i|®pih thejparloiir^Cmthe
fjeach, light candle (wax statuette)
with the fire on the beach - the
candle melts some wax, insert
wax - the wax head is
'ered with thin coating of
ich will keep it dry whilst
ig. To get the sack, hold
:, open window, then open
te model in the game room
fact a game in which the object

ZZAP! 64 October 1 987

is to move the atomic chihuahua
East towards the monument and
Iget the ring, defeating any
obstructions he will find in his
' way. The coloured buttons control
,hi$ movements ~ start with the
Green. 11 x ^

GUILD OF THIEVES

Pull the rope then jump onto the
jetty at the beginning. Don't touch
the Statue until you've been into
the hill and down the rope ladder.
Drop the Statue as soon as you fall
into the well, then go Down and
North. To get down the slippery
shaft, first dig in the sand, then
wear the Wetsuit Boots. Don't
forget to look under things. The
bars aren't as strong as they seem.

PLANETFALL

Search Floyd.

To repair the Computer,
remember 'Fantastic Voyage'.
Notice that the microbe seems to
be attracted to the heat of the laser.
Insert card Through slot - Holding
a conference? Dial 748 for help.
Ladders extend if dropped - to
eight metres.

SORCEROR

There are two important things in
the fairground. To solve the maze,
remember what you did with the
garlic in Zork 1 . The flash of orange
light in the coal mine merits
investigation. The rope and timber
are useful, but you can't take them
out of the mine. There are two uses
for the Meef spell.

KOBYASHI NARU - the
complete solution!

Select Wisdom, activate Solance,
pull Solance, North, analyse
Tunnel, ascend Cliff, push
Boulders* dive Pool, swim Water,
use Solance, swim Klam, get Pearl,
swim Water, ascend Water,
descend Cliff, South, East, select
knowledge, get Scimitax, South,
analyse Tree, analyse Plant, throw
Scimitax at stems, throw Scimitax
at Plant, take Leaf, take Pod,
North, East, activate Pod, throw
Pod at Maw, South, get Flower,
North then East (to let poison take
effect before curing) use Leaf,
North, ascend Obelisk, jump
Barrier, West, West, West, North,
select understanding, analyse
Megaunit, activate Megaunit, get
Lasalite, South, East, jump Pit,
East, activate Lasalite, drop
Lasalite, take Lasalite, take Wheel,
West, throw Wheel into pit, jump
Hoverdroid, analyse Perch, West,
activate Lasalite, use Lasalite, East,
activate Computer, South, South,
take Wheel, West, West, jump Pit,
West, North, North . . . Adventure
complete!!

<»*

zzzzz.

Getting the hat gets the man out of

the weUi:liifP

Not jetting noticed on the second
road? Raise sign, raise hand.

WITCHES CAULDRON

Moonshine, whiskey - who cares?
To recite the feline name, you have

to be a bit backwards!

HAMPSTEAD

Want some money? Join the
queue.

Newsagents are worth a look.

The bench is there to be sat on!

DRACULA

Check out under the carpet in the
count's room.

Make sure you go to the up-line
platform after buying your ticket.
Net Renfield - means found in
store-room.

NECRIS DOME

An electro-magnet will dispose of
an obstacle, but you will have to
assemble it from bits found lying
around.

THE HULK

Plug gas outlet with wax then bite
lip.

Clever Contacts

Tass Times, Spiderman, Borrowed
Time, Mindshadow, The Pawn,
The Hulk, Zzzzz, Neverending
Story, Hobbit, Adventure Land,
Castle of Terror, Sherlock, Pirate
Advnture, Hitchhikers,

Wishbringer, Circus, Zork I, II, III,
Fourth Protocol, Price of Magic,
Dracula, Ultima III, IV, Mugsy's
Revenge, Sanction, Bored of the
Rings, Boggit, Ship of Doom, Sec-
ret Mission, Hampstead, Mission
Asteroid, Sea Stalker, Holy Grail,
Ballyhoo, Spellbreaker, Gremlins,
Red Moon, Worm In Paradise.
David Woodberry, Nutbourne,
Lane End, Bembridge, Isle of
Wight

Voodoo Castle, Subsunk, Seabase
Delta, Hobbit, Grand Larceny,
Munroe Manor, Castle of Terror,
Dallas Quest, Zork I, Murder on
the Waterfront, Mindshadow,
Neverending Story, Project 1 : Mis-
sion Volcano, Ninja, Secret of Bas-
tow Manor, Aztec Tomb Adven-
ture, Castle of Mydor, Raka-Tua
Adventure, Himalayan Adven-
ture, Nuclear Wargamaes
Mario Moeller, 38 Greenvale
Drive, Greenvale, VIC 3047,.
Australia.

Zork I, II, Heroes of Karn, Empire
of Karn, Dracula 1,2,3, Zzzz, Red-
hawk, Sorceror of Claymorgue
Castle, Hobbit, Quest for the Holy
Grail *

The Microgen Cracking Crew
(Attn Lee Anstey), Microgen
1st Floor, Kenham House, Wil-
der Street, Bristol

Hunchback 1,2, Labyrinth^ Sub-
sunk, Seabase Delta, Time
Machine, Adventureland, Terror-
molinos, Hulk, Spiderman, Night-
mare Planet, Heroes of Karn,
Jewels of Babylon
Mark Firman, 1 1 Denmark
Drive, Sedbury, Chepstow,
Gwent, NPO 7BD

The Boggit, Hobbit, Mindshadow,
Hulk, Terrormolinos, Golden
Baton

M Green well, 28 King Richards
Hill, Earl Shilton, Leics, LE9
7EY Tel: Earl Shilton 46752.

Snowball, Return to Eden, Worm
in Paradise

Ross Gordon, Balandra, Sum-
merhouse Road, Godaiming,
Surrey, GU7 1QB

The Pawn, The Hulk, Dungeon
Adventure, Advnture Quest, Col-
ossal Adventure (Level 9)

James Duffy, 23 The Hiron,
Cheylesmore, Coventry, CV3
6HS

Hollywood Hijinx, Zork III, Infidel,
Cutthroats, Starcross, Deadline,
Ballyhoo, Wishbringer,

Enchanter, Sorceror,

Spellbreaker, Seastalker, Leather
goddesses. Hitchhikers Guide,
Zork I, The Pawn, Bards Tale,
Phantasie, Ultima III, IV, Tass
Times, Borrowed time,
Mindshadow, Tracer Sanction, Pil-
grim, Bugsy, Dracula, Very Big
Cave Adventure (Ptl), Nine
Princes in Amber, Wizard of Oz,
Worm in Paradise, Return to Eden,
Colossal Adventure, Gremlins,
Dungeon Adventure, Red Moon,
Heroes of Karn, Perseus And
Andromeda, Sorceror of Claymor-
gue Castle, Hulk, Spiderman, Fan-
tastic Four

Guy Thomas, 17 Borstal Hill
Whitstable, Kent CT5 4NA Tel:
0227 274846.

Vera Cruz, Red Moon, Colossal
Adventure, Dungeon Adventure,
Emerald Isle, Worm In Paradise,
Hulk, Hobbit, Upper Gumtree,
Hacker, Grand Larceny, Merry
Christmas from Melbourne
House, Robin of Sherwood, Snow
Queen, Kentilla, Gremlins, Terror-
molinos, Lords of Time, Pirate
Adventure, Sherlock, Bored of the
Rings, Dracula, Boggit, Twin King-
dom Valley, Sorceror of Claymor-
gue Castle, Eureka, Colditz, Val-
kyrie 17

Jason Jennings, 102 Berkely
Road, Shirley, Solihull, Birm-
ingham, West Midlands, B900

Zim Sala Bim, Jewels of Babylon,
Dragonworld, Zork I, II, III,
Mindshadow, Ninja, Forest of Evil,
Mountain Palace Adventure, Ring
of Power, Magic Stone, Gremlins,
Hulk, Spiderman, Hobbit, The
Helm,* Dallas Quest, Stranded,
Quest for the Holy Grail, Time
Machine, Adventureland, Little
Indians, Perseus and Andromeda,
Lucifer's Realm, Wizard of Akyrz,
Emerald Isle, Zzzz...,
Hunchback, Planet of Death,
Upper Gumtree, Dodgy Geezers,
Frankenstein, Starcross Aage
Krogh Christoffersen, Tinglevvej
4, 2820 Gentofte, Denmark Quest
for the Holy Grail, Terrormolinos,
Colour of Magic

Mark Paskin, 11 Wells Road/
Penn, Wolverhampton, West
Midlands, WV4 4BQ

Seabase Delta, Subsunk,
Terrormolinos

Paul Langton, 21 Richmond
Avenue, Litherland,

Liverpool, L21 2PT

iilii

■ man. . . . . —

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Spectrum £ 7.95 Commodore & Amstrad cassette
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Firebird is a Registered Trademark of British Telecommunications pic.

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mm •• ••

I f you’ve just finished reading Steve’s article on Rainbird’s Advanced OCP Art Studio and
thought, ‘I’d really like one of those’, then look no further- help is at hand. There are ten
of these state-of-the-art utilities just waiting to be put in the post with your names on -
and that’s not all. Rainbird have graciously agreed to stump up the necessary dosh for a
Badger airbrush complete with hose, three cans of propellant and a set of ten airbrushing
inks to get you on your way. If you’ve ever fancied being the next Oliver Frey, Chris Foss or '
Tim White, then this could be the opportunity you’ve been waiting for!

All you need to do to win this fantastic set is to picture our cute and cuddly margin
character Rockford in his art studio, busy at work. Put your ideas down on paper using
paints, pencils, crayons, chisels and stones or any medium you feel happy with. The first
prize of the airbrush set (plus a copy of the Advanced Art Studio) will go to the person, who
in our opinion, creates the most humourous and imaginative scene.

Entries should be sent to: I’VE GOT AN ARTISTIC BENT COMPETITION, ZZAP!
TOWERS, PO BOX 10, LUDLOW, SHROPSHIRE, SY8 1DB.

Please remember to include your name and address (and telephone number if possible),
and don’t forget to indicate which version of the Advanced Art Studio you would like,
cassette or disk. Entries should arrive no later than October the 8th, so you’ve got one month
and counting . . . Bye!

ZZAP! 64 October 1 987 49

By Andrew Braybrook

Tuesday July 14th

Drew some new sprites, including assorted
meanies and the dreaded charge supervisor -
who turned out to be a w'eird-looking thing
altogether. The sprites that I'm doing will be
one of two or maybe three interchangeable
sets. I was going to have one set for the positive
phase and one for the negative, but I may have
room for a third set after all. The animation and
colour information is fixed, so corresponding
elements in each set must behave similarly.

The rejuvenators have turned out to be very
slow at getting to the orbitals. I have speeded
up their final approach but they occasionally
get a little lost.

Wednesday July 15th

Re-organised the rejuvenators's method of
getting to their targets, which fortunately
simplified things considerably. They now don't
necessarily head straight for their destination
to start with, but when they get close they're
usually already above it so their final approach
is much quicker.

Drew a bunch of new sprites for some more
assorted meanies and bullets and put in some
more data to use them during play. I've made
some adjustments to the ship's slowing down
mechanism that kicks in when it's moving
slowly with the joystick centred to bring it to a
halt. Normally the ship will drift freely in fric-
tionless space at high speed for any-directional
movement, not just eight. The slowing down
system is for accurate lining up on targets
which are not moving.

Thursday July 16th

The smallest ship can currently carry two sys-
tems, both of which are fixed and indestructi-
ble: the energy display and the charge indi-
cator. This leaves no room for expansion,
which is partly desirable as the newcomer to
the game won't have to worry about battling
with the ship modification system, but partly
annoying to anyone who wants to protect their
ship a little. A bit of tinkering under the bonnet
has seen this altered so you still start with the
same two systems, but the charge indicator is
now destructible and changeable - it can now
be scrapped and replaced by another system.

Thought of a brilliant new system to incor-
porate, an emergency dematerialise system
that kicks in if the energy drops below a certain
level - effectively a safety valve. Following this
idea through, I wondered what would happen
if there was nothing that could be done to
replenish the energy before the next visit to the
play arena. Well, the system would just fire off
again straight away. This would result in an
infinite loop. Programmer's solution? The sys-
tem must self-destruct when it has been used.
The excuse? The system has to supply a large
surge of power to activate quickly and burns
itself out. Not bad, eh?

Friday July 17th

The rejuvenators are still getting lost some-
times. They always get where they're going if I
follow them, and they also succeed if I wait by

50 ZZAP! 64 October 1987

the nucleus and watch them come out at regu-
lar intervals. They don't work when they have
to visit the opposite side of the Universe from
me because the co-ordinate system wraps
around, but not very consistently amongst all
the various relative distances that are used to
calculate the rejuvenator's current position.
Result? Confusion, for me and the
rejuvenators!

Monday July 20th

Managed to 'mend' the rejuvenators almost
totally beyond repair as they couldn't find a
tree in a pine forest this morning. I sneakily fol-
lowed one and it got nearly to its destination
and then hared off in the opposite direction. I'd
decided to set fire to the C 1 28 if the bug didn't
come out by lunch-time. It was close too, and
anyway, why does the compare instruction set
the negative flag? Surely all you want to know
is whether 'A' is equal to, less than, or greater
than ' B', not whether the difference is positive
or negative. All this means is that you can now
say: 'Well, not only is 'A' greater than 'B', but
actually it's buckets bigger.'

I also managed to find a well dug-in bug that
had been there for ages. It was in the move-
ment routine which is an area where things are
difficult to trace as it's a dynamic thing, you
can't just stop things and examine them as the
whole movement over a long time is being
controlled. Anyway I found it, and now the
meanies are following proper patterns as
instructed, which is quite impressive though I
say so myself. I've come up with some more
movement behaviour patterns including the
infamous Uridium homing mines, and some
pods that shoot out, perform aerobatics and
then stop. If you hit them with a weak weapon
they go absolutely bananas, firing bullets and
lurching around.

Tuesday July 21st

Designed most of the rest of the sprites for the
positive phase set leaving only eight to do. At
this point I decided to create the negative phase
set where there is a one-for-one correspon-
dence between the two. Each sprite has two
images, each meanie has two appearances. In
some cases it may mean reflection, in others a
reversal of animation, and others a total red-
raw. It took about two hours to get through
them all. I'd still like to design a couple of extra
roamers before I'm finished.

I hope to show the meanies developing dur-
ing the game through the graphics and move-
ments and also what they fire. Some early ones
may not fire, but learn how to, some may
home in very badly but get better at it, one will
even try to impersonate a charge orbital
towards the end (and maybe even other ele-
ments in the game).

All 256 images, which would normally take
1 6K were slowly and carefully compacted
down to under 8K. I could even put in another
256 images if I were that way inclined, but I'll
only do it if I can't think of a better use for the
space, like a 1 OK bit-map test card, much more
useful!

Wednesday July 22nd

Andrew Hewson paid us a visit today, so there
wasn't much progress made on Morpheus -
although I did write a brief storyline for back-
ground information and I also wrote down
some interesting facts about the game, such as
it has 2,403 sprites all on screen at the same
time, 2,395 moving stars in the background in
452 parallax layers, 72,000 colours on screen
at once, a full 68-piece orchestra playing dur-
ing the game at CD quality, running simultane-
ously with a digitised after-dinner speech by
the Pope.

Thursday July 23rd

Doesn't tempus fugit? Todaysaw the inclusion
of the roamers into the game. Piece of cake
really, it turned out that the standard meanie
routines were quite capable of running them
with no alterations so I just had to write an
initiator. This carefully attempts to place roam-
ers, wandering meanies or maybe rocks,
roughly in the ship's path to give the impres-
sion that the place is full of them. Works too!

For an encore I also decided to put in the
bonus sequence whereby as the requisite
number of orbitals have been de-activated the
nucleus decides to shut down so all the other
orbitals collapse and you have to race back to
the nucleus as it release spinning 'Morpheus
Symbols'. These can be destroyed by any
means, fair or foul, for extra bonus points. It
releases one symbol for each orbital personally
destroyed, so since on level one you only need
to destroy one to unbalance the system then
only one symbol will be released. Come level
32 the place will be full of Morpheus symbols
around the nucleus, although they are very
short-lived and expire in a few seconds.

Friday July 24th

Just tidied up yesterdays's routines. It some-
times counted the orbitals wrongly, but I soon
found out why. It wasn't counting the ones
that the rejuvenators killed by overloading
them off-screen.

I drew the last eight sprites for each phase
and tidied up some others ... so that's the
graphics about finished. It took BASIC six
minutes to compact them to just under half
size.

I've put in most of the meanie wave data just
to try out most of the manual movement
modes and check that the right meanies are
coming out. There are about ten different types
which begin fairly stupid in different ways and
each develop through the game, learning how
to fire, firing better weapons, attacking less
clumsily or just becoming plain nasty.

Monday July 27th

Had one or two people look the game over and
we decided on a few improvements, so the
radar now has a cross-hair sight to make
finding the orbitals a little easier, and I've
shrunk the Universe a little too. This has the
knock-on effect of requiring possibly two orbi-
tals near the screen where one was previously
the limit, deliberately. I thought this would be

a toughie as many other routines assume that
only one orbital can be on or near the screen at
a time. In the event it didn't turn out to be too
much of a problem. Sometimes I even get the
impression that I understand some of these
routines.

I've tried out many of the levels and it's cur-
rently rather easy early on but it gets a lot more
difficult at around level 12. I'll just have to
shuffle the levels around until I get a good bal-
ance.

Tuesday July 28th

Couldn't face the thought of making up and
keying in buckets of data for the meanie waves
that get released, so I decided to let the routine
make them up itself. I still ended up keying in
a large table of data but it didn't require quite
as much thought!

Made up all the data for the various systems
that can be selected and bolted onto the ship,
including their build-times, cost and efficiency.
Some will be available early on and get phased
out, others will be 'invented' later on.

I like to think that these reflect a real situa-
tion. As time passes the weapons and systems
get better, and usually quicker to build, maybe
cheaper, with pricing wars going on between
the various manufacturing companies. I'd like
to write a proper history of all this.

I've been playing the game to try out the
difficulty level. It's fairly easy to clear the early
levels without too much hassle. I tried out level
38 and didn't last long! I've changed the level
completion condition so that a maximum of
the orbitals need to be destroyed rather than
all 32 of them which should speed up the
whole pace of the game.

ST has been developing some sound effects
on the C64 and driving himself mad under the
headphones. Every now and again he lets me
hear one through the TV speaker and the
whole office shakes!

Wednesday July 29th

Found a couple of well-embedded bugs that
were so crucial that they've gone totally
unnoticed since about April. The title screen
had only been displaying six sprites instead of
eight, but since they're all on top of each other
it's difficult to tell.

The supervisor concept is not required, the
meanies are quite nasty enough on their own,
so I seconded the graphics for it as another
meanie type. I really need to think up some
names for all the inhabitants. I want to call
some little spinning rings 'Ubiques', (pro-
nounced You-Be-Kway). because they get in
everywhere - it's from the Latin you know.

Now the graphics and most of the level,
weapon and system data is in. ST has nearly
completed the sound effects, so we're almost
done.

Thursday July 30th

Started putting in the sound and fine-tuning
the game. This is the bit where we spend more
time playing the game than coding anything,
but it's probably the most important bit, getting
the playability right.

Doubtless it won't be right for everybody but
as long as some find it a little easy and others a
little difficult then we've pitched it about right.

Allocating sounds to the part of the program
that require them is always fun, sounds go off
in the wrong places, for too long, or not at all.
It's just a case of knocking it into shape.

Friday July 31st

ST has completed the sound effects and has
now turned to the music. He's done some
really low 'sub-sonic' sound effects that'll cer-
tainly shake the dust off you TV set.

I've improved the control mode consider-
ably to allow easier switching between
weapons and I've come up with another possi-
bility, the rapid-fire weapon. Hope I have time
to code that one up.

Monday August 3rd

Been playing the game over the week-end and

two playability problems loomed. One is that
the game failed to kill me off after a lengthy
game, which is curable by increasing the slope
difficulty to make it meaner in the later levels.
The other is that the bullet-firing weapons are
basically useless! They're too slow, with too
few bullets requiring too much accuracy to hit
anything, even the fastest firing guns aren't
much good.

The limitations of the program are that eight
bullets is tops, fairly small ones with con-
sequently fine collision detection. Thus I've
decided to scrap the lot! I've put in a more
global systems whereby unseen bullets are
fired. A flash of flame is seen coming from the
gun that fired and all the collision detection is
done behind the scenes. I can make the bullets
as big and fast as I need to make the game work.
This frees up a little more CPU time too.

Tuesday August 4th

A certain publisher (who shall remain name-
less) moaned that the nucleus doesn't do a lot,
it just sits there and throbs. It didn't take long
to modify that. Now it spits out bullets at
irregular intervals up to eight at a time. I've let
it have up to 12 bullets on a C64, and 1 5 on a
C 1 28. It now looks menacing and is not a place
to stay for a cup of tea. It reinforces the idea that
the nucleus is the villain and must be destroyed
but not by wading in there with all guns blaz-
ing.

I've made selected meanies more aggressive
to start with and swapped over the homing
mines so that the ones with a bit of random ele-
ment in come later, as they're much harder to
shoot than ones that home directly.

ST has completed the music, and unless I
think of any more sound effects, they're all
done too, all 53 of them.

Wednesday August 5th

Mostly a day of tuning up, and not playing
pianos either. Found a few things that didn't,
and never could, work. Again fairly subtle
things that had gone un-noticed. It's fairly easy
to spot a mistake once you know that some-
thing is definitely not working.

Made the meanies more trigger happy and I
can't get past level 1 2 out of 50, so I'll probably
back that down a little. I've removed part of the
concept of extracting charge and ferrying it to
the opposite phase to plaster the negative orbi-
tals. This was making it necessary to transport
back a little too often. Now charge extraction
and consequent meanie release is not depen-
dent on the shop having some room for charge,
except that no points are awarded for extract-
ing charge that cannot be carried so the wily
player will till transport back to switch phase,
but no-one is forced to do so.

Thursday August 6th

Went up to Hewson's with the new version of
Morpheus to show them how to play it. It is vir-
tually impossible to play without instructions,
and I haven't written them yet because I may
change my mind about anything. I've deliber-
ately made it difficult to understand without
instructions because the game has subtleties
and complications that need a while to observe
and explain. After all, if you 'd never seen cric-
ket before and were given a bat, ball and
stumps would you get the rules right? I doubt
it very much.

John Cumming and Dominic (designers and
programmers of Zynaps) sit in on a think tank,
and having understood a bit more of what was
going on, started getting into the game. We
then had a lengthy discussion about what the
game is, and what it isn't. Ideas were put for-
ward to improve it and the need for a detailed
instructions manual was expressed, with
screen shots to back up the text.

We also saw the advertising artwork for the
first time in all its glory. It's very pretty with a
gorgeous starfield.

Friday August 7th

I've made the larger ships a little cheaper and
given all the systems and weapons a two-letter
code to give them more indemnity. The control
mode is still causing some arguments. At the

moment it feels a little like Gribbly to control.

The thing is that is has inertia and acceleration
to make it feel like space, which requires more
skill to control than simple inertia-less system.

It's like comparing Asteroids to Space Invaders.

Still, I've altered it slightly to give more accu-
rate control. I've completely re-done the sys-
tems list to include a new ECM unit and to
make the more useful systems available earlier.

Monday August 10th

Began work on a pre-game 'meet the meanies'
sequence which means I now have to think of
names for them all. I expect people will think
of some of their own as well!

I think I need to award more points for later
meanies to compensate for having to replace
all the systems that they keep blowing up!

Just got the September ZZAP! and came
across Andrew Johnson's Rrap. He mentioned
the Atari St once too often for him not to own
one. I was merely pointing out the technical
differences between the Amiga and the ST for
the benefit of those who are not sure, and to
set the record straight in contradiction to
another publication at the time saying that
they are very similar. There's always one com-
puter owner ready to rise to the bait though.

All this, and Johnson (for we are apparently on
surname terms) accuses me of telling porkies.

Well, anyone with a colour TV can count the
colours being scrolled on Goldrunner, one,
two, three, four out of 1 6 which is what I'd call
limited in colour. The other colours are
sparsely added later for the ships and bullets.

The main playing area on Metrocross has how
many colours? Black, white, green and blue, I
make that four again. You don't have to ask
me, go and ask any honest ST programmers, I
know I have.

Tuesday August 1 1th

Finished off the title sequence to show off the
meanies, some with blank names because I
haven't come up with many names yet. The
limited area on the title screen coupled with
the sprite multiplexor running means that the
sprite positioning had to be pixel perfect to act-
ually work properly, there's no room for any
play in the vertical positioning at all, the sprites
are just re-cycled in time.

Prepared a version to take to ZZAP! for a pre-
view and headed for Ludlow at lunchtime.

Wednesday August 12th

The big day. I've still got some names to think
of and a high score update routine to write
which I think I can cope with along with some
more minor tuning. It's hard to think that I
started this project before Christmas. Since
then we have installed the PCs for doing the
editing and assembling on, downloading the
code for testing on the C 128. We thought it
would speed things up, which it did, but it just
allowed me to write a much larger and more
complex program, about 30K of code com-
pared to Uridium's 18K or Alleykat's 20K. All
these games have used all the C64's memory,
the rest of the space being taken up by graphics,
data, variable areas and buffers. The ratio has
just switched to more code meaning that I've
had to compress the graphics more. There are
still nearly 350 sprite images in Morpheus,
more than Alley kat and Uridium put together.

Personally I'm pleased with the result, it
does many of the things I had dreamed of at the
beginning, some ideas as always fell by the
wayside, to be replaced by new ideas along the
way.

Although Morpheus has a definite arcade
quality look which is a logical progression of
everything I've done before, it's not a 'five
minute quick-blast' game. It contains a large
planning ahead element which is at least as
important to master as the control mode. I
think you'll find this a game that will be played
over many months. This will be the final diary
entry and the game can be seen publicly at the
PCW show and should be on sale in October.

Who will be the first to build and maintain a
ship capable of reaching and destroying level ^
50? W

ZZAP! 64 October 1987 51

Hewson

t long, long last, after seven
months of development,
Braybrook has
completed Morpheus. If you’ve
been following his trials and tribu-
lations over the past seven
months, then you should have
some idea of the game’s concept.
If you haven’t, then here’s a rough
idea of what Morpheus is
about . . .

The player takes control of an
expandable ship, entering 50 dif-
ferent multi-directionally scrolling
space sectors to do battle with a
wide variety of aliens. The objec-
tive is to seek out and destroy a
suspended alien power network
consisting of ‘charge orbitals’.
Destroying the required amount of
orbitals (this amount corresponds
to the level’s number) results in the
shutdown of the central controlling
nucleus, making the area safe
again and allowing the player to
continue to the next sector.

Naturally, there are alien ships
guarding the network, and though
these don’t appear very aggres-
sive at first - try wounding one of
them and see how he reacts. As
the game progresses, the aliens
evolve and become more and
more violent, and consequently
capable of inflicting more damage
on the ship.

Money is awarded for every-
thing that is shot, and is saved and
used to buy new, more modern
ships or extra features for the cur-
rent model. As higher levels are
reached, it is essential that new
machinery is bought, including
shields, battery power-packs,
inertia converters and other
devices (both offensive and defen-
sive), to maximize chances of sur-
vival.

► Commissioning the latest in
weapons systems - a snip at
5000 Guineas

Unlike other ‘progressive’ shoot
’em ups (such as Nemesis and
Zynaps) extra weaponry and fea-
tures are not just added to the
ship. What sets Morpheus apart is
the fact that extra equipment has
to be commissioned - not simply
added when you pick up a credit
or icon. Also, the extra features are
‘bolted on’ to the ship, which
means you actually need room on
the side of you vessel for extra
weapons and peripherals. It’s not
just a matter of killing the aliens,
collecting the money and buying

► The basic, unmodified vessel just waiting to be customised with go*
faster stripes and fluffy dice

► Using the giant tooth-paste weapon in Morpheus

t-v 1

* H n i

weapons and systems at random.

Morpheus has its own time-
scale - timeslices - and as time
passes, the aliens become
immune to older weapons. There-
fore it is likely that a sensible player
will progress further than one with
quick reactions or an awesome fire
rate.

The mission starts with the ship
capable of carrying two devices,
but if money is used wisely - and
plenty of aliens are destroyed - an
extremely large ship capable of
carrying a wide variety of arma-
ment and features can gradually
be purchased.

One nice feature is that the
game automatically detects
whether the machine it’s being
loaded into is a Cl 28. If it is, an
extra set of sprites are included
into the gameplay.

Morpheus will be available in
October, priced £8.95 on cas-
sette, and £12.95 for the disk ver-
sion. If you want more details,
there’ll be a full review next
issue . . .

wmm

CBM64/I28 SC Amstrad

MASK' M AND THE ASSOCIATED TRADE MARK ARE THE
PROPERTY OF KENNER PARKER TOYS. INC. (KPT) 1987.

The Battle
Continues!!!

loin with the forces of |

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f U nquestionably the most detailed, historic World
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Select your command on one of six different US Navy
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• Completely authentic vessels with five levels of maps,
periscope, binoculars, radar, sonar mines, torpedos, deck
and anti-aircraft guns.

Test dive one for yourself

“The undisputed champion of US
games houses”

Your Computer Nov. 1986

CBM64/128 £ 9.99 tape £ 14.99 disk

IBM £ 24.99 disk

Atari ST £ 24.99 disk

The time: 1400 hours. Somewhere in the Pacific. You’re at the g I **
helm, commanding the greatest concentration of firepower nr ? m

ever put in a lightweight fighter the deadly
Fletcher Qass Destroyer. You’ve embarked on the first simulation
K that actually combines the intricate, largescale strategy of wargaming
I with the intensity of furious, eyeball to eyeball action. This time you’re
Jk right in the middle of it all . You knew it wouldn’t

jpT 1 be pretty, but how tough could it be to rescue a

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fully-operational , earbursting battle stations to worry about, all
armed to the gills. Not to mention radar. Navigation. Sonar.

And half the Japanese fleet crawling up your spine.

Time to make some tactical decisions.

Will it be the twin 40mm Bofors anti-aircraft guns? Or the 5 "
leadspewers aft? Depth charges or torpedos? Autopilot or
guts? Any choice could be your last, so make it good.

CBM64/128 £ 14.99 disk

, IBM £ 24.99 disk

Or so you thought. But
now look what you’ve
j|f got. Thirteen

Wl 4

1 -,- ■ — I

| OEf TH C. fcEFOfiTSt HChMV C-rtHftOE . |

;

This year’s tenth anniversary PCW show looks like being
the biggest (and busiest) yet. So, in an effort to make sense
of the confusion of press releases, lies, rumours and
malicious gossip, John Minson got on the phone to find out
exactly who’ll be doing what, when, where and how.

Okay, now I want you to listen and
listen good. We’re going out there
soon . . . and some of us won’t be
coming back. So stick together and
take my advice if you want to
survive.

Yes, the PCW Show is once
again upon us - those five days of
fun, previews, and endless walking
from stand to stand resulting in
total exhaustion. If you’re going to
survive the crowds at London’s
Olympia between 25th and 27th
September you’ll need to
remember the old boy scout motto
and ‘Be Prepared’.

I always reckon the best course is
to have an idea of what you want to
see before you enter the hall . . .
and stand up whoever it was said
‘ Everything r So, having nothing
better to do one sunny afternoon I
picked up my address book and let
my fingers do the walking as I went
talking to software houses.

First up were Ocean and
Imagine, where I caught Gary
Bracey in the middle of a minor
panic. ‘We’ve just got too much to
show, this year,’ he explained and
proceeded to reel off a list of
names.

Ready for release at show time
will be Renegade , Athena , Freddy
Hardest, Victory Road and, at long
last, Tai Pan which Gary enthuses
has been well-worth the long wait.

But then you get into the
previews and things really get
going. There’s Konami’s Gryzor
and Taito’s Rastan Saga , plus
Konami’s Combat School , a Hyper
Sports variation featuring the sort
of assault course you need to train
for PCW.

Dinamic scores again with
Basket Master basketball,
complete with slow motion replays,
and Athena's sequel, Psycho
Soldier should also be on show.
Platoon is the major movie tie-in;
Phantys is sci-fi ‘with great
graphics’; Matchday II kicks off
courtesy of John Ritman; and
Denton take us to Where Time
Stood Still , a Great Escape style
game with dinosaurs and jungles.

‘And,’ said Gary, panting for
breath, ‘there’ll be lots of other
surprises!’ How does he intend to
survive all that I wondered. ‘I’ve
got my giant pack of valium
already,’ he laughed. ‘But
seriously, it’s a tremendous chance

Activision’s new arcade conversion, Supersprint is looking good. More
details are available on their stand

to meet the public.

‘And please put that we’re
looking for good programmers and
artists, so if they want to come to
the stand and ask for me, I’d be
delighted to speak to them. ’

SOMETHING SPECIAL

Could anyone match that, I
wondered. Well it looks like
Activision will be having a go with
not one but two stands. Electric
Dreams display will be ‘Something
special,’ according to Mr
Ambassador and all-round flat-top
Andrew Wright. He wouldn’t say
more, but it’s designed around the
motor-racing theme, to celebrate
Super Hang-On and Championship
Sprint.

Meanwhile Activision

themselves are going for saturation
coverage in a hi-tech setting as they
bring you big Arnold
Ham’n’egger’s latest, Predator.
They hope to have a game preview
plus clips from the movie - at least
if they can find some that won’t
make you replay your Olympia
burger!

Knightmare is their other great
tie-in, this time with the Anglia TV
adventure game show which
promises to be the smash of the
season. Traditional adventurers
will delight in two new Infocom
titles though. Beyond Zork uses a
novel method of control, while
Plundered Hearts, by Amy Briggs,
is the company’s first girlie story, in
which you play a female. But don’t
think that they’ve gone soft . . .
male play-testers reckon it could be
the company’s best ever!

System 3 kick you where it hurts
with the Thai Boxing simulation,
Bangkok Nights , while Abstract
Concepts have found their
concepts becoming strangely solid
- the Gulf War they suggested in
Mindfighter has all come true! Real
monster bashers will be on the
Rampage with the coin-op

conversion of the same name.

And Andy’s PCW comment. ‘I
love it. It’s a chance to get
completely bonzo-ed (What can he
mean?) and meet people. ’ But isn’t
he worried about being mobbed by
millions of fans and admirers? ‘No,
I’m disguising myself with a new
designer haircut. ’

DEODORANT

After all this heavy duty action
there’s to be some peace
somewhere - right? Wrong! At
least not at Gremlin where it will
be ‘all go’ according to Sue Quinn,
who recommends, ‘Comfy shoes,
plenty of deodorant and plenty of
drink,’ then adds: ‘We really do
look forward to it. ’

Their stand features football
action in Gary Lineker's Superstar
Soccer , which combines strategy
and arcade sections as you select
the team and the tactics before
taking to the field as a goal scoring
centre forward.

Mask II sees the return of Matt
Tracker with four missions to
solve, while Basil, the Great Mouse
Detective is a tie-in with the Disney
cartoon. Basil and Rattigan will be
attending the show, ‘in the fur’,
says Sue.

Blood Valley won’t be released
’til November, but you’ll be able to
preview this fantasy adventure,
based on the Duel Master series of
books, two months early. Games
Compendium stays closer to home
and takes a whacked-out look at
traditional amusements such as
Snaked and Ladders - with real
snakes!

Alternative World Games gives
sport a similar silly slant by adding
such activities as welly throwing.
Not one for butch guys like The
Masters of the Universe . Gremlin
has the tie-in rights to the live
action movie, released around
Christmas. Add to that an
appearance by Greglon the

See us at RC.W show
-Stand No. 1511 -

Outshine Ordinary Joysticks

MicroProse Ltd. 2 Market Place. Tetbury. Gloucestershire GL88DATel: (0666) 54326 Telex: 43422 MPS UKG

ZZAP! 64 October 1987 55

gf it

Parachuting deep behind enemy lines and undertaking solo infiltration
and commando combat missions are both part and parcel of Airborne
Ranger, from Microprose

Gremlin, and it’s going to be a
fiendish show.

WEREWOLVES

Surely that model of calm and
composure, the enchanting Mandy
Barry of Ariolasoft, has a hint for
PCW survivalists. ‘I can’t wait for
it,’ she shouts, but is that a hint of
sarcasm I detect? Anyhow, her hint
is ‘Keep p*ss*d most of the time. ’
Quite what you do if you’re too
young to get served (or can’t get a
second mortgage to buy a drink at
Olympia prices), I’m not sure.

Drink enough and you could be
seeing werewolves. But don’t call
The Sun because they’re
Ariolasoft’s Werewolves of
London , making an early
appearance in preparation for their
November release. Programmers
are Viz, who designed Bride of
Frankenstein.

Star Fox is a Reaktor game,
which will be playable at the show,
while you’ll be able to sneak-
preview Starlight’s Red LED ,
which promises to be a big hit (see
review on page 18). Bushido
Warrior is another PCW-time
release from Reaktor, this time it’s
a combat game which lets you
choose your champion.

ENTERTAINMENT

The Mirrorsoft crew are
obviously masochists - they’re
taking two stands! But maybe
there’s method in their madness,
because one is hidden away in the
relative calm of the Business Hall,
where the only screams come from
accountants as their spreadsheets
tell them they’re bankrupt.

But it’s the entertainment area
we all care about, isn’t it, so I got
Pat Bitton to spill the secrets. With
five labels under the Mirrorsoft
umbrella, they’ll be relying on a
video display rather than a handful
of computers so that everybody
gets to see the action.

Mean Streak , an October
release, is set in the 23rd Century
when the M25 is a refuge for rebel
bikers who chase around its
rubbish-strewn surface (sounds
like nothing’s changed, then!).
You play a pleasure seeking motor
cyclist, challenging the rebels in
this one or two player game.

Zig-Zag is a new Tony Crowther
title, based on a David Bishop
design - while looking ahead to
Christmas there’ll be screens from
Andy Capp. The idea of this arcade
adventure featuring the lovable (?)
layabout is to survive a week on the
dole. I reckon they should send
copies to the cabinet to teach them
a thing or two!

In the Mindscape area there’ll be

56 ZZAP! 64 October 1987

the simply stupendous Defender of
the Crown, which has turned into
the top-selling C64 disk ever, and
should be available on tape soon, if
all goes well. There should also be
a demonstration of Sinbad , from
Master Designer Software of
California.

Back home there’s Fortress
America from PSS which takes a
different approach to SDI, and
there should also be an
announcement about a deal with
yet another American company,
though Pat couldn’t mention any
names as the contracts aren’t yet
signed.

So is Pat looking forward to the
show. ‘Do I have to answer that?’
she asked, sounding alarmed. She
did admit that this year, as Press
and Publicity Director, she hopes
to have a slightly more relaxed time
than in the past, when her duties
have been far more diverse.

All those American titles made
me think of another Trans- Atlantic
company, so I got straight on the
red telephone to Microprose,
rumoured to be the world’s only
software producer with a hot-line
to the Pentagon!

Stewart Bell told me that Major
‘Wild Bill’ Stealey will be jetting in
from the States to sign autographs
and chat with the public. Ibis at
least, guarantees that their stand
will be larger than life.

HELICOPTER

He’s already had his troops in
training, according to Stewart, with
a pre-show warm up of baseball and
hot-air ballooning (!). Stewart’s
own training programme, based
around his bike, which he used to
ride for sport, was less successful -
he backed his car over it and
mangled the wheels!

Enough of the gossip though.
The pride of the Microprose stand
will be a full-scale helicopter
simulator - three tons of the right
stuff, as used to train the military.
But Stewart had to add that it won’t
be open season to play with it - they
just can’t let everybody loose on a
piece of machinery which cost
£25,000 merely to fly over here!

What you will be able to see is
Project Stealth, a simulation of the
new undetectable American plane
(motto, ‘Keep it healthy - stay
stealthy’) which is so top secret the
top brass won’t admit that it exists!
Still, Major Bill should know what
he’s talking about, and Stewart
says it was all cleared through the
Pentagon. Expect therefore to see
lots of people wearing fur hats and
talking with Russian accents
crowding to get a look!
Microprose’s other line of attack

will be a topic they were told they
could never simulate . . . personal
commando combat. But they’ve
proved everyone wrong with
Airborne Ranger, which combines
arcade and simulation factors to
produce the game that Commando
should have been, Stewart
promises.

After all this blood ‘n’ guts
aggression you really will be
needing an island of calm and
where else but in the company of
the urbane Dominic Wheatley and
Mark Strachan, better known as
Domark. After all, if Mark can
sincerely say, ‘I can’t wait. I love
the show. I thoroughly enjoy it’, he
must be a Zen master!

After concentrating on just one
product last year, Trivial Pursuit,
Domark is spreading itself wider
this time. Not A Penny More, Not
A Penny Less isn’t a simulation of
dealing with greedy programmers,
but the title of a Jeffrey Archer
book, the rights to which Domark
have just bought. The author will
be on the stand - though only on
the first trade day, so you won’t be
able to ask him for tips on how to
write a best-seller!

Star Wars, the game of the
arcade machine of the film, will be
previewed, and James Bond will be
thrilling The Living Daylights out
of everyone. Domark will
complete its stand with the Macsen
TV titles, which they’re
relaunching.

Now you can take part in
Blockbusters (I’ll have a P, please
Bob), which has been completely
reprogrammed, plus Countdown
and Bulls eye. Sadly, Treasure Hunt
doesn’t include a digitised Anneka
Rice, but October will see a
computerised Krypton Factor for
fans of the long running test of
mind and body.

Hewson is another of the more
sane software companies, so sit
back at their stand and enjoy the
age of steam in Southern Belle's
sequel, Evening Star (see review on
page 93). And if that isn’t maybe a
trifle too calm there’s always
Andrew Braybrook’s great newie,
Morpheus, a complex shoot 'em up
which puts you in control of one of
the dreadnoughts you were trying
to destroy in Uridium! There’s a
sneak preview of this potential
blockbuster following the last part
of Andrew’s programmer’s diary
on page 52 of this very mag.

Also on the stand will be
Magnatron (sequel to Quazatron)
and Nebulous, the newcomer from
John Phillips, a puzzle game set on
towers above the sea which
revolve, with extremely attractive
graphics, according to Andrew
Hewson. It’s a completely surreal,
creative environment, so check it

out!

PCW will mark the debut of the
budget Rack-It range too, a
selection which combines Hewson
quality with a £2.99 price tag. High
spots include Anarchy , a puzzle
shoot ‘em up, and Sunburst, in
which you get to blow up whole
galaxies.

So what does Andrew make of
the prospect of yet another PCW
show for one of the industry’s
veterans? ‘It’s hugely enjoyable
and it’s a huge amount of hard
work. You don’t get one without
the other’, he says, speaking with
the voice of experience.

Rack-It will also be appearing on
the Mastertronic stand - the budget
kings are handling distribution.
There you’ll also find MAD,
Ricochet and all the other £1.99
and £2.99 regulars.

RELAUNCH

But the real excitement,
according to Sharon Wade, will be
the launch of Arcadia, the coin-op
machines that contain Amiga
boards. Then there’ll be the Sega
system, with a chance to win a
console. And to top it all
Melbourne House, another PCW
regular, will be getting a relaunch
to thrust it back into the public eye .

Sharon’s taking her pre-show
preparation seriously too -
‘Jogging every morning at 6.30, a
three-month diet of bran cookies
and lots of fresh orange juice. ’ She
could be the only person standing
at the end of the ordeal - if she has
any strength left after all that
exercise!

Palace has a new label to
announce at the show as well.
Outlaw Productions will debut with
the Shoot ‘Em Up Construction Kit
(Preview on page 124), which lets
you have a say in what sort of aliens
you’re going to waste.

On the parent label there’s
Starship, initially on the ST but to
reach the C64 eventually. It’s a
strategy/action game with filled-in
3D wire frame graphics according
to king of the Palace, Pete Stone.

Pete’s advice on surviving PCW
is simple though - ‘Stay away!’ But
if you can’t he suggests, ‘Voice
training so you can shout louder
than anyone else. I always have a
sore throat after the first day!’

HOSPITALITY

I’m beginning to think that his
first advice is fairly accurate when
at last the Liverpudlians of
Software Projects come to my
rescue. Now solely a publishing
company for other people’s
programs, Gary Miller promises
me that they’re going to have a
large, peaceful hospitality lounge

► The new Microprose flight simulation, Project: Stealth Fightehs about a

plane so secret, that even the US Airforce deny its existence!

tZY

6S0 2mn Hbl

3 SlUtUXMtP
3 BHP.B&K

i nmt pick

► Out in October costing £4.50, the first of four Judge Anderson
and Judge Death books from Titan, setting the scene for
Piranha’s game

for members of the press - and that |
it will be well-stocked with drink.

Outside though it will be
Hysteria , which just happens to be
the name of their new release from
Special Effects, a new team led by
Paul Finnegan, who was formerly
with Ocean.

In fact there are several names j
previously associated with the
Manchester giant behind this
parallax scrolling arcade/strategy
shoot ‘em up, which sets you
against a fanatical sect who have
been changing our future by
messing around with the past. Gary
reckons the best way to beat the
PCW-syndrome will be to head
straight to their stand.

There are sure to be goodies
from Telecomsoft’s assorted labels
- Firebird (who have titles such as
Bubble Bobble on the way), and
Rainbird. Softek is springing into
life with the Ace label for arcade
conversions and originals. And
what of Electronic Arts, newly
over here from the States? We’ll
have to wait and see.

Whatever happens, you can be
sure that PCW will be as tiring as
ever - but also as unmissable! I’m
sure you wouldn’t like it if I told
you about absolutely everything
that you could see - after all,
discovering the Christmas hits is
half the fun.

By now I’m feelinglike I’ve spent
five days in the Olympia as it
is . . . and God knows what my
phone bill will be. So apologies to
everyone who’s been omitted from
the round up.

SECRECY

•s’". ' f f ' • s v 9 •"*

, V >•. ■ w V* < ^ r , •. • ' 'J- t ' %

There is one company who
wouldn’t tell me anything though.
When I phoned US Gold, the
Midlands giant would only tell me
that they were making a press
announcement next week. But, I
explained, my deadline was on
Friday, so if they didn’t want to
miss out they’d have to at least give
me a hint.

Still no go. US Gold is more
secretive than the government is
over Spy Catcher. But they did add
that they’d had several people
complain that this would cause
problems with their deadlines. I
refrained from pointing out that
this could mean that their
announcement was a bit late and
rang off.

But I must make mention of one
more stand. Don’t, whatever you
do, miss our very own Newsfield
village. It may not be quite on the
scale of Atari or Commodore’s, but
it will star all your favourite staff
and should be jam-packed with
goodies.

Among them will be our very
own launch . . . The Games
Machine, and if you know what’s
good for you, you won’t miss out
on the premier issue (destined to
become a collector’s item) of the
I def new computer mag - editor
Graeme Kidd may just be wearing
his DMs and giving you the hard
sell if you do!

As for me , I’ll be hanging around
the stand, but if you don’t see me
there keep an eye out as you
I wander around the show. And if
I you see a bedraggled figure
wearing a loud shirt and mirror
shades, talking to himself, treat me
gently - I probably only need
another drink!

I JOHN MINSON

GREETINGS^

on the cover

GOING ON
IN THERE p

Strontium Dog, Rogue Trooper,
Judge Dredd, Nemesis The
Warlock - the affinity between
2000 AD characters and computer
games is long established, and
moreover, these heroes of dubious
morals have provided C64 owners
with inspiration for innumerable
computer pictures.

Two more licensed characters
are imminent, Martech have Slaine
almost ready and Piranha are hard
at work on probably 2000 AD' s
most successful realisation after
Judge Dredd - Judge Death. The
game, simply called Judge Death ,
is due for release in early
November. The player takes the
role of Death’s living nemesis, Psi-
operator Anderson, the female
Judge whose lifeforce is
inextricably entangled with Judge
Death’s mission in Mega-City One.
Anderson first appeared in
2000 AD in a Judge Dredd three-
parter called Judge Death by John
Wagner and Brian Bolland (Progs
149-151), and the complete story
can be seen in Titan Books’ first
1981 Judge Dredd album. It details
how Death arrived through a
timewarp from his own planet
where life itself was considered
evil. He rapidly sets about judging
the living with his infamous catch
phrase, ‘THE SSSENTENCCE
ISSS DEATHHHH!’ Eventually
Judge Anderson sacrifices herself
by psychically absorbing Death’s
evil spirit and then having herself
encased in Boing, a super-resilient,
fast-hardening plastic, imprisoning
Death with her.

It wasn’t the end though, such
super-heroics were rewarded by
her being revived - and Judge
Death too. In October Titan Books
are publishing the first of four
Judge Anderson albums, timing
which fits well with the lead up to
the release of Piranha’s Judge
Death game.

To celebrate Judge Death the

TH-THEUAV JUDGE DEATH

15 1005 E AGAIN ! .

another famous member of the
undead struck out for fame and
fresh blood). Currently, the
Commodore 64 version is most
advanced, but as we go to press no
preview copies are available in
Britain. Piranha have a few screen
shots, which we’ll bring next
month. If you visit Piranha’s stand
at the PCW Show, not only will you
be able to meet the dread Judge
Death, but you should also be able
to get an early glimpse of the game.

Now all we need is Halo Jones
and DR & Quinch, and our
2000 AD cup will runneth
over . . .

December ZZAP! (Issue 32, on
sale 12 November) will include an
extra 16-page Judge Deathpull-out
supplement, exclusive to ZZAP!
and CRASH. The abridged story is
very relevant to the game, since it
describes the action leading up to
the point where Piranha’s game
starts. And on top of that, the
original Bolland artwork is being
specially prepared for us by Titan
Books in full colour and includes an
exciting poster. It’s a real
collector’s item, so don’t miss it!

Andromeda, the game’s
programmers, are based in
Hungary (not too far from where

50p OFF PCW SHOW
ENTRY

Cut out and use this special
ZZAP! coupon when you buy
your ticket at the Olympia

OFFICIAL ZZAP! 64 PCW SHOW
MONEY OFF COUPON

ZZAP! 64 October 1 987 57

WITH EEAR!

"An arcade strategy game with enough
addictive qualities to turn even the toughest
coin-op critic into an arcade junky". C 81 VG

Return to an age of mystery and intrigue, a place in wmcn me ramea
treasure of King Solomon shone brightly with its glorious wealth.
Where amongst the network of mysterious rooms lies the next key
that will bring you nearer to these fabulous riches. Where amongst
the stone pillars and hidden dangers lie mythical creatures that can
Deroetuate vour life long enough to reachftour ultimate goal.

AMSTRAD

| Cass. £ 9.99 Disk. £ 14.99
SPECTRUM 48/128K t8.99

CBM 64/128
Cass.£ 9.99 Disk. £ 14.99

ATARI ST £ 1 9.99

Units 2/3 Holford Way, Holford, Birmingham B6 7AX. Tel: 021 356 3388

F airy. .9

SC K I I N SHOTS I ROM AMSTRAD VERSION

UJS. Gold Ltd

r -

l ~

H 0£M0.... 1

CHUCKIE EGG II
(A n' FI

At long, long last! Following
numerous requests, here are
tips for Chuckie Egg II, the game
that’s had some of you tearing
your hair out and foaming at the
mouth.

Mrs Baron, Bushey Heath,
Hertfordshire has achieved a
score of 20,941,800 and has
decided to share her profound
knowledge of the game’s work-
ings.

Mrs Baron also mentions that
she recently spoke to someone
who used to work for A ’n’ F, and
was told that the game cannot

be completed because an
infinite number of eggs have to
be made . . . what a stinker!
However, the following tips
should be of help to those who
are still stuck.

Before any items are collected,
make sure that the Generator is on
and working. When the generator
is ticking over, the train moves
along, allowing Chuckie to go
above the railway line. Walk up the
chain where the train used to be,
travel five screens to the right by
pressing the up and right keys until

you see a ladder in the top right
hand corner of the screen. Climb it
and continue.

If Chuckie can’t go above the
line and is forced left as he enters
the ‘Beware of the Chocolate
Monster’ screen, your tape has a
bug and no further progress can
be made. Mrs Baron spent a year
complaining loudly to A ’n’ F, who
finally sent her a new copy. Con-
tinue if you’re lucky enough to be
able to. Collect milk, sugar and
cocoa and deposit them in their
respective vats - then make the
toy. If Chuckie deposits this after
collecting it, it automatically
becomes incorporated in the egg.
Take the egg to despatch and
you’ve just about finished your
task - all you have left to do is
make an infinite amount of eggs.

NEMESIS THE

WARLOCK

(Martech)

Okay all you deviants. If you’re
having trouble despatching the
vile Terminators, drop your
blades and guns for the moment
and listen to the advice sent in
by ace hacker and slayer, Dean
Jackson of Swanley, Kent. Use
his tips in conjunction with the
map and you should be able to
add a few more kills to your tally.
And don’t forget - be pure, be
vigilant and kick ass.

GENERAL HINTS

Once of the most important things
to remember is that when Nemesis
stands on a platform his head prot-
rudes through the one above.
Therefore Terminators walking
above him drain his lifeforce as
quickly as if they were walking
right through him. Duck if there’s a
Terminator above, and jump if
there’s one lurking about on a
lower platform.

The edges of the screen are usu-

ally safe, so wait for the Ter-
minators to approach before
blasting them. When Nemesis is
doing this, watch out for those
sneaky little chaps who jump from
their platforms onto his head.

Avoid killing Terminators near
ammo, because more often than
not the body lands on the ammo
pod and prevents Nemesis from
picking it up.

Terminators can’t be shot at
close range, so don’t waste ammo
attempting to kill them with a gun.
Run them though with a sword and
less life force is lost.

Avoid zombies at all costs and
don’t forget that they take four
shots to kill.

Only use acid on zombies, or if
Nemesis is close to death -
remember that there’s a maximum
of two acid gobs per screen.

Always keep a check on the
number of Terminators left to
shoot on each screen (the number
on the bottom left). When there are
five or six left to shoot, move
towards the exit (marked on the
map) in order to avoid having to
rush when the number reads zero.
Failure to reach the exit in time has
fatal consequences.

SPECIFICTIPS

Screen Four - Shoot a Terminator
so that its body lands on the mid-
dle platform, allowing Nemesis to
use it to step his way out.

Screen Six - The way out is down.
Shoot enough Terminators before
falling into the pit.

Screen Seven - This one takes
quite a while to complete. Fall
down the gap and guide Nemesis
left or right before he lands. Shoot
Terminators as they fall through
the gap. It is possible to build a
bridge of bodies in order to reach
the ammo.

Screen Nine - Build a pile of
bodies on the right hand side of
the screen so that Nemesis can
climb to the exit at the top right.
Screen Eleven - Shoot Ter-
minators in the back and they fall
on the platform creating a bridge
so that Nemesis can climb to the
top.

Screen Thirteen - Unlucky for Ter-
minators this one! Pile bodies on
the left hand side of the screen and
walk over them to the exit at top
left.

Screen Eighteen - Jump though
the screen exit on the right to land
safely on the next screen.

<59 (45J

• ••

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TIPS

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OINK (CRL)

JET SET WILLY II

Heeere’s Jim Blackler of Lancaster with some brilliant POKEs
for this ageing follow-up to a follow-up. Just type in the listing
and follow the on-screen instructions for a really fun time.

1040 FOR 1=355 TO ^Q^'A-pOKE 374, A
SIKV'mnbS E LIVES (y’/N)”;A$: 1F AS=“ n ”

^ ; SIN A PUT^EF 1 ASTRA N SP0RTERBEAMCV/

*i N) ” ;A$ * *‘M” THEN POKE 390,173: POKE

• 1110IFA$=‘N THB« w

• . 395 , 173:POKE 400,173 Q TQ F1N 1SH (0-

:s ssswssn--*

# I Vi 40 DATA 1 69, 174, 1 41 , 98, 84, 1 69, 1 , 1 41 . 25.

I 169,96,141,32,115 14 i, 160, 78, 169, 109,

« 1150DATA20M, 84, 169,4, 1^,^^ ^

1141,244,81,169, • ?5 169 ,13, 141 , 234, 75,

;l 169/ 7°5J41 7 235 75, 76 0 56 1 69,99, ^ ^ ^

Have you read the comic? Great isn’t it — a bit like a junior Viz
(and if you haven’t seen that, you’re really missing something).
Have you played the game? That’s great too - especially when
you’re playing with unlimited lives. If you’d like to do the same,
just load the program, reset the 64 and enter the following:

POKE 31 991 ,227 Unlimited Pimples
POKE 32215,0 Kill sprite to sprite collision on
Pete’s Pimple

POKE 39923,227 Unlimited Rubbishmen
POKE 43574,0 Kill Rubbishman’s collision detec-
tion

POKE 47774,227 Unlimited Tom Thugs

POKE 47426,1 Kill sprite to sprite collision on the

Tank.

If you want to see the end POKE 16433,12 to fill all the panels.
When you’ve made your changes, enter SYS 1 6384 (RETURN) to
start. If you haven’t got a reset switch then type in the following
listing, RUN it and load the game as normal. The 64 resets when
the game has loaded, allowing you to enter any of the above.
Thanks to David Slack of Maidstone, Kent.

■I 1 0 FOB Y = 6 ™ J°J d 6 a = A+ D-.NEXT Y

I i 20R p E f° 756 8THENSYS679

I I 301FA-7568 nATA”‘END

' 40 PRINT “ERROR IN D ■ 1412 45,3, 169 i*

50 DATA 32, 44, 24 , • ’ 169 i 9 6, 141 '•

l\ 55DATA2.141 .V *-*.™'* ’ ?6 ,0,4,169 .«
*> 60 DATA 55, 5 169,2,1 41, g 41 _ 252 , 65

* 65DATA128, 141,251,65, 7 31j 2 o 2

•< 70DATA162.15 189,219 2 20 1, 96 \ ,

I 80 DATA 208, 7, 169, 5b, ,

i J

Aievotf

iK^ibteenoujn

mao on

the

ZYNAPS (Hewson)

Blast ’em, maim ’em. Kill! Kill! Kill! This listing doesn’t make the
game any easier, as you go back to the beginning of a level
every time you die - but at least you don’t have to go all the way
back to the start! All you have to do is type in the listing, RUN it
and unlimited lives are yours. And all that is thanks to Zoltan
Kelemen of Tyreso, Sweden.

I! ^^1^11,3,9^ 69,189^41,146,183,

141,2,184,108,47^0

BOMBJACK (Elite)

Right, here goes a series of pretty unusual POKEs. First of all
load the game, then reset the machine. Now, here’s where the
fun starts.

If you POKE 5112,234 (RETURN) followed by SYS 3101 (RE-
TURN) and clear the first screen, Bombjack stands still and
listens to the music.

Reset your CBM again and type POKE 5112,123 (RETURN)
and SYS 3101. When BJ walks past a hostile, six Bombjacks
appear on the scoring column.

Reset the computer again and enter POKE 5115,123 (RE-
TURN) POKE 51 12,123 (RETURN) POKE 51 12,255 (RETURN) and
restart by typing SYS 31 01 . You now have a remix of the music.
Start the game and move past some hostiles. Stand Bombjack
still and listen to the remix again.

Thanks very much to Mark A Skinner of Moulton, South
Glamorgan for those unusual POKEs. Has anybody else qot
anything like it?

The film isn’t much cop, and unfortunately the game reflects
this a little top well. Still, if you’ve bought it, perhaps you’d like
to make use of this Mick M ills and Al unlimited lives listing^ which
provides fun for all the family. Just enter and RUN it for unlimited
lives.

=49152

run i ■

READ A:POKE
i L=L+

• .

I 6U iNtA i ^ tmjcm an

1 70 READ C:1FT=CTHE xx10+90'.END i

80 PRINT “ERROR IN DATA Xxi u ,

95 PRWf "SYS 49152 TO LOAD AND RUN.” I

99 END i 7 n ifift 32 186,255,169,1150

100DATA169, 1,170, 168 3 , ,1145

DATA 0, 32, 189 255. 32, 213. 255,

DATA 32, 141, 168 4. 169 ’ 4 ?62 2, 638
130 DATA 4, 169, 62, 141,93, , 4 ^ gg1

140 5 7 162 49 189’, 56, 192, 157, 921

170 DATA 201 , 2, 240, 4, ^ 169 ,208,809

, 180 DATA169, 4, 153, , . ■ 4g 25 62 2

• 190 DATA 141 , 47,25, 16 , 6, ■ ^ U1 y84

» 200 DATA 169, 141, 109, 31 J 69, ?g g38

• • '

• . •

ssssssssSs’

ACTIVISION

ENTERTAINMENT SOFTWARE

TIPS

I sKS 5fs f([3

' .. •

r^f^TfrS

/ c\ i sis y ~

! TO 35871 :READA:POKE

i l,A:C-C+A:NEXT l:IF 0=6082 THEN SYS 35 r<;i
1 4 PRINT “ERROR IN DATA” 851

1 SJ! 1 ;*™ !S ¥■' ** »■ S»

'^ATA3,.,e6, 25 5;iV,8?^,r 255

NEMESIS THE WARLOCK

(MartechJ

There was a little ‘feature’ in the listing printed in last month’s
tips section which caused the game to crash after a while - but
Mick Mills and Al have rectified it with this new supabrill version,
which also includes the option of an auto-exit! Just type in the
listing, RUN it and follow the on-screen instructions.

f >

®| 10 L=49152
•' 20 FOR X=1 TO 14:T=0
»i 30 FOR Y=1 TO 8
I j 40 READ A.POKE L,A

>l 50L=L+1:T=T+A

60 NEXT

»! I° READC:IFT =CTHEN90

’! 90 S T “ ERR ° R ' N DATA ”Xx10+90:END

J 93 GOSUB 300
i 94 GOSUB 400

• j £ eSd T “ SYS 49152 T0L0ADAND R^.

1 1 1 10 SaTA 0 6 32 1 i 89 7 °25f k?'o 1 86 ’ 255 ' 1 69 ' 1 1 50

• I 120DATA26 ?4 isnl' fj 13 ’ 255 ’ 169 ' ^

I,' 140DATA44 M op r R 14 L 91 ’ 56 ’ 169 ' 8 °1

• ! I 50 DATA 5 6 ; 76, 25, 8 ,162 iXj®

I N;“ PR,NT " DOVOUWANT,N ™'reA M M0 7m I

J 32 0GET A $;lFA$<>“Y”ANDA$o“M”TLjirM *

J 33° IF A$="N” THEN POKE 49220 1 THEN320 |

! 340 PRINT A$:RETURN ’ 1

| 400 REM 1

410 PRINT “ DO YOU WANT INFINITE AMMO? (Y/ j -

420GETA$:IFA$<>“Y”aNDA*^“m»t i

430 IF A$=“N” THEN POKE 49225 214 20 ''

440 PRINT A$:RETURN 5 ’ 2 ' «

STAR PAWS (Software Projects)

The trouble with this merry romp is that you can always get so
far, then when there are about six birds to get, Rover dies of
starvation! If this is happening, take this Zoltan Kelemen cure -
an easy-to-use type in listing which just has to be entered and
RUN. Go for it, and save the universe.

! C=C+A; NDTT I™ 1 ° 526: READ A: P0KE '.A:

READ A:

NEXT I: IF C ; 3 988 THE^SYs'S ' A ' ° =C+A

5PRINT“CDD^n,,., _ 1°505

PRINT “ERROR
6 DATA

IN DATA!

162,1,168,32,186,255

14 ^’ 5 ' 84 ’ 76 . 1,82, 198, 157

~ A ' ’ 'UU, OO,

DATA 213, 255, 78,215

32 > 189, 255, 32

169,

186,23,76, 0,16 , 5>8 ’ 76 ’ 32 ’ 8 ’ 169 - 9 6, 141,

I’ve really got into the arcade version - it’s brilliant. The 64
version isn’t too bad either, and the gameplay and music are
both absolutely spot-on. The later levels are a little tough, so if
you require a helping hand with some unlimited lives, simply
type in and RUN this Zoltan Kelemen listing before loading the
game.

3F0R|=512 T0 53 3 ;read

A.POKE

I.A:C=C+A:NEXTI

ssssr

THE LAST NINJA (System 3)

After last month’s tips, I wouldn’t have thought you needed
these infinite lives POKES. However, if you’re still having
trouble, type in and RUN this listing before loading thd game for
a never ending supply of Last Ninjas. Cheers to Tim and Ian
Fraser of Ruislip, Essex.

•POKE

, 3E ° RI=579T °640:READA
l,A:C=C+A:NEXT I

| 4 A F C R r =3 A 722T ° 31735:REA D A

l,A.C-C+A:NEXT l:IF C=8

5 PRINT “ERROR IN DATA

6 DATA 198, 157, 78, 41 3
yn^rf’ 32 ’ 189 ' 255 ' 32,':

La If 40 ’ 2 1’ 3 ’ I 09 , 128

244,238, 169, 166, 141,20

8 DATA2 °- 3. 162, 121,’ 142

»> 81 ’ 3 ’ I® 9 ’ 197, 141, 135, 12
i 9 U AT A 0,0, 169, 49,141,15£
i 96

POKE

THEN SYS 579

162, 1, 168, 32,

120, 136

237, 2, 238, 119,

206, 179, 3, 76,

191,3, 12

234,141,160,

, ^ ^ ^ 'Z ^ \ Z “ v \ ^ \ * * ** ■* ■' a ■ • - \ \ ^ ^ k *. * * r Z * O'

>W^ k k Sw O' WkO C. k k k k W W Wk k . W ^ k k k k ' O' Wk k . J. W O' Wk m k ' Wk k k k k k k k Wk k O' W W Wk ' Vw k Wk W W-* ^ - - - Wk kk- W ^

Y. ^ / Ho- ^ ■» - »■» *V> -* - a - ■%. -» * * • + - * • *0 ' ^ \ , a • • - \

k k V m m Sm W> • k k 'sL- k Ck k k k k k k k k k kW Vk^ k V V. k - Vkk k.Sl^ W k Wk k O' k k

.kkW Wk «k k, km. \w . . i>

Y ^ ^ Y\/ -

• ■ — s — - — ^ V V ■ ■ ■ • * O-' ■ . . . . » k» •

k k k Wk k W k k kC^» Wk Wk W W Wk W*' k k k k O A V

yy weff»MG "THIS -STUPP \N?

Atari XL/XE
MSX

BBC/Electron
C16/Plus 4

COVERING . . .

Commodore »4

Spectrum

AmstratOlM

Atari ST

;

THE BEST
THING TO HAPPEN
TO COMPUTER MAGAZINES

SINCE

CRASH AND ZZAP! 64

WHEREVER TECHNOLO*
TO ENTERTAINMENT
THE GAMES MACHINEV
BE REPORTING ... 1

THE GAMES MACHINE represents a brand new way of approaching home computer
entertainment - apart from reviews of the latest games to appear on 8-bit and 16-bit
machines, we’ll be taking a regular look at the games console scene, examining^^
technological gadgetry and producing in-depth features on computer-
related topics. Any idea what happens when a hypnotist teams up
with a couple of video technicians?

Read Issue One of the GAMES MACHINE and find out! \ ^

TECHNO FUN

Having fun doesn’t stop with computer games. The dedicated
console looks set to make a comeback, and soon we’ll be
seeing games developed for *he home micro making their
debuton machines which are completely new to the UK.
Water-pistol fights and games of tag will

never be the same again. Nowadays \

rrv the well-dressed dude dons

a water-sensitive tabard and
Jfc plays battery-powered water-

1 1/ jrilfc games with HYDROFORCE.'

With MIDI

equipment and ar
8-bit home micro

jOGY is applied

Interactive fiction, as pioneered
by Jackson and Livingstone,
brings a whole new meaning to
reading for pleasure. And
printed paper is one of the
oldest ways of getting
entertainment into people’s
homes. We’ll be looking at new
developments on this front,
including board games, Play By
Mail - and maybe even Softstrip,
a new means of distributing
software on machine-readable
paper.

iPinaii

mi m
mmi

ARCADE EXCITEMENT

Arcade games have provided a rich source of
inspiration for games on 8-bit micros - and
now 1 6-bit machines like the Amiga are
actually being used inside arcade machines!
Sega’s arcade hit Out Run is due on home
micros before Christmas, courtesy of US
GOLD, but it looks like the first ‘home’ version
of this game will appear on the Sega console.
We’ll be keeping you posted with regular
updates on the arcade scene.

SIGNATURE OF PARENT OR GUARDIAI
IF UNDER 18:

WHO KNOWS

WHAT

TOMORROW

WILL

BRING?

On the 17th of September something
wonderful is going to happen. The shelves
of newsagents across the country will be
graced by the presence of an incredible
new publication . . . It’s called THE
GAMES MACHINE, and these four pages
provide a brief look at what you can
expect to see in the bumper first issue.
Graeme Kidd (far left) and Gary Penn are
the dynamic duo behind THE GAMES
MACHINE, taking a highly effective and
radically different approach to reviewing
games and covering the software scene
in general.

Find out about Lazer Tag - tipped to be
the toy of the eighties - in our in-depth
look at seven different available systems.
Dedicated consoles have returned with a
vengeance and greatly improved hard-
ware - but what do they have to offer?
And on the home computer front ... US
Gold, Gremlin Graphics, GO!, Novagen,
Firebird, and Activision all have some out-
standing software under wraps for the
Christmas period. Issue One of THE
GAMES MACHINE has the answers, and a
whole lot more besides . . .

Don’t miss out on what’s happening in
the rapidly changing world of
computer and electronic
entertainment - use the form
below and get your copy of
THE GAMES MACHINE reserved
at your local newsagents.

Dear Newsagent

Newsfield, the publishers of CRASH and
ZZAP 64! are launching a new magazine
in September and I want to make sure I
don’t miss out. Please order me a copy of
THE GAMES MACHINE, which is pub-
lished on 17th September. In case of diffi-
culty, those nice people at COMAG will
make sure you can get stocks from your
wholesaler for all those other people who
are going to come in asking you for this
wonderful new magazine!

NAME

ADDRESS

Wmmmm

I didn’t expect to get a ’R.I.S.K.’ order ... none of usever does
I mean. Galactic Command doesn't call for a Rapid Intercept
Seek and Kill operative unless all else has failed ... but
why do I get this feeling I'm gonna be on my own this time!

THE EDGE, 36/38 Southampton Street, London WC2E 7HE

SUBSTANCE?

Weary and battle-stained messengers tramped across the war-torn
wastes of North Oxford, ploughing through the battle lines of
Japanese tourists and French school parties to bring despatches
announcing my finals results. Yes - I got a second like everyone else.
Now I’ve retreated from the centre of the city, the bit where all
the nice buildings and the tourists are, to be a great writer and starve
in a garrett. I’ve started my next novel and I’ve all sorts of ambitious
plans to write for television, so watch out for my name on the screen !

Now to work . . . the conflict between Presentation and Content
in wargames is an interesting one, because war and strategy games
are the only kind of computer software which can tolerate any sep-
aration between them. And it does seem to be a conflict; I have
become uncharitably suspicious of games which load up looking
polished and sporting design gimmicks, as one of this month’s
games, Blitzkrieg, does. I’m beginning to wonder whether it’s a
question of attitude on the part of the game designers. ‘Real- Ale’
wargame writers signify their intention to present a serious piece of
complex strategic gameplay by swarthing it in a clumsy order frame,
which just barely escapes hampering the playability, and dressing it
in such unappealing graphics that none but those who take these
things suitably seriously would ever be attracted to play their game.
Commercial software houses, on the other hand, imagine that even
when playing a wargame, what the average buyer really wants is
another something ’em up, so they produce a piece of software to the
high standards common in the arcade genre, which turns out to be
a glossy but ineffective imitation of a real wargame. This may well
be an over-simplification, but I’m thinking of Battlecruiser and
Blitzkrieg as relative examples of each approach.

In other genres, technical advances have always been welcomed
as actual steps forward. The impact of presentation in an arcade
game is always very strong, and can genuinely affect the value of the
game. There was a time about two years ago, when I first came to
computer gaming, when the programming and presentation
advances over the preceeding 18 months had been amazing. Spec-
trum game collectors could look at previously acclaimed programs
like Manic Miner and then at the recent masterpieces like Knight
Lore, Alien 8 and Lords of Midnight and rejoice. Every new issue of
CRASH and the late lamented PCG seemed to contain a blockbusting
review of major breakthrough, and truly these were wondrous times
to be alive in.

These breakthroughs boiled down to programming and presenta-
tion. Knight Lore was not intrinsically a better game than Manic
Miner (and some people would argue strongly to the contrary!),
except that it created a novel illusion of three dimensional solidity
which most people then found added a great deal to their enjoyment.
The total aesthetic appeal of the program was greater. Nobody com-
plained that the revolutionary graphics and the slick programming
made it commercial and glib, though later Ultimate productions cer-
tainly had plenty of abuse of this nature heaped upon them.

Strategy and wargames are not the same as arcade games
because the base of their play is different, as I’ve tried to explain in
past reviews. Wargames in particular do not generally attempt to
create their own fantasy world — except in special instances - they
are interfaced with reality, and expect the player to consider them
very much as a means to the end of simulation, whether of a battle
or a war machine. It is because they are less self-contained that they
can get away with shoddy presentation, but still they reduce their
aesthetic appeal and so, for no reason, they reduce their impact.

Commodore disk-based games in particular have no excuse, for
they are not hampered by very great memory restrictions. Perhaps
we’re past the era of real technical programming advances, and
perhaps it’s unrealistic to hope for something of the sort to arrive in
the form of a wargame. Wargame writers seem to be great
traditionalists. But it’s not too much to ask for a neat screen display,
an attractive character set, clear and (if possible) imaginative-look-
ing unit counters, and some orders system which doesn’t take half
an hour to manipulate. Music is not necessary.

STYLE OR

-24

SIMULATOR

SSI, £14.99 cass,

£19.99 disk

PRESENTATION 75%

Quite a ‘ solid ’ appearance and
thankfully no disk access
pauses, but the program
seems sluggish to respond to
the joystick and keypresses.

GRAPHICS 70%

The landscape is pleasant,
with aerially-visible features
like roads convincingly marked
- but the plane itself has about
three frames of animation.

RULES 95%

The documentation is a major
feature, containing a large
amount of information about
Ploesti and the missions that
were sent out over it.

AUTHENTICITY 93%

Despite the lack of ‘real’ flight
simulation graphics, it’s easy
to get absorbed in the histori-
cal atmosphere. Also, the
plane’s dynamic reactions to
flight conditions are very cred-
ible.

PLAYABILITY 89%

Once you’ve got the hang of it,
it’s difficult to stop.

OVERALL 90%

A convincing and absorbing
game, which may well appeal
to those who don’t usually like
conventional flight simulators.

dimensional movement . . . and
therefore no sensation of flying
at all. And although the stick
drawing aeroplane does point
itself in the right general direc-
tion when the player changes its
bearing, it does so very
inexactly. Information about the
plane’s precise location is
gained from the numbers on the
instrument panel, which yet
again makes no attempt at vis-
ual realism. There are no blurred
dials or unhelpful lights in this
flight simulator. All instruments
give their readings in neatly
arranged numerical form, and
the main difficulty in learning
how to fly the plane is remem-
bering which of these numbers
are important.

All this may be seen as a draw-
back for those looking for a flight
simulator — but for those looking
for a game, I think the com-
promises are worth it for the
sake of clarity. The actual
mechanism of the B-24 is
authentically simulated, and the
plane reacts noticably to carry-
ing extra weight, to wind
speeds, and to limping along
with three of its engines out and
one of its wings on fire.

The relevant parts of Italy,
Yugoslavia and Rumania are
divided into ten-by-ten mile
squares, filled either with moun-
tains, land, sea or hill. These ter-
rain types are important insofar
as it’s best to fly at a sufficient
altitude to avoid crashing into
them. One screenful represents
one square on the glossy card
map provided, so if your instru-
ments are taken out in combat
it’s possible to navigate ‘by
hand’. Normally, pressing a key
will bring up a navigator’s
report, telling you precisely
where you are, with co-ordi-
nate’s exact to two decimal
places.

When playing the campaign
game, the player has to choose a
mission to any one of the 12
refineries situated around
Ploesti. Daily production figures
are displayed on the campaign
screen, and as they are taken out
their production will drop. Hav-
ing chosen the target, the aim is
then to get to Ploesti— balancing
the amount of fuel taken with a
sufficient number of bombs.

Before you can head off
Ploesti- wards, you have to
assemble your squadron. This
involves circling above the air-
field at the right height, keeping
up the correct speed; if any bom-
bers drop out, that will be one

less ror tne mission. There s also
a fighter escort to pick up at a
specified location, to protect the
bombers from ‘bogeys’ on the
journey out. Near the target, if
you get therein time, you pick
up a bombing escort. To bomb
successfully, you have to be
exactly on the right course -
something which requires a lot
of fine manoeuvring. A strong
wind can make it very difficult to
attain and maintain any course
at all. Bomb sights, which come
into operation once you open the
bomb doors, enable you to fine-
tune your position and send the
bombs away almost exactly over
the target.

It’s concentrating on the mis-
sion that gives this game atmos-
phere, and the superb documen-
tation - there’s a separate book
full of information about Ploesti,
including an extract from a B-24
pilot’s autobiography —
enhances the sense of involve-
ment which is invited by the
straightforward gameplay. A
minor complaint is the irritating
drone of the plane’s engines
which keeps going throughout
the flight, though when you stall
or run out of fuel, the silence that
ensues is suitably ominous - and
you can always turn it down.
The difficulty level is adjusted
by altering a set of parameters
such as engine reliability, and
whether you want any weather
or not, so the challenge is exten-
sive.

Maybe it would get boring
eventually flying back and forth
to Ploesti if you really played the
game to death, but you have the
option of bombing Bucharest for
target practice, and the fact is
that this flight simulator, unlike
many, encourages persistance
and playing until the early
hours.

achine simula-
tions are, when
you think about
it, at one
extreme of the
wargaming
scale. Some
games allow
you to move
armies across continents over a
period of months, some ask you
to direct divisions in a single bat-
tle, and a few let you position
individual men in combat. Simu-
lation games however put you
directly behind the gunsight,
and let you press the buttons -
they represent a cross between
the action of arcade gaming and
the ideas of strategy gaming.

B- 24 Flight Simulator and
Combat Simulator, as it’s more
or less called (hardly a memora-
ble title I trust you’ll agree), puts
itself firmly in the wargaming
camp. A more appropriate title
would be something like ‘Mis-
sion Over Ploesti’, although the
operation of the gameplay
involves flying a B-24 bomber at
a level of some mechanical
detail, the focus is firmly fixed
on the object of the flight and
most of the excellent documen-
tation concentrates on the
target rather than the machine.
This is an unusual emphasis for
a flight simulator, but it turns out
to be what makes B-24 more
playable and absorbing than
flight simulators usually are. It
achieves this by cutting out
what is normally considered to
be an essential element in this
sub-genre, the computer-gener-
ated impression of flight itself.

During the Second World War,
the town of Ploesti in Rumania
provided Hitler with most of his
oil for the Axis War effort. It was
reckoned that if the numerous
oil refineries around Ploesti
could be bombed into non-pro-
ductive oblivion then Hitler’s
war machine would creak to a
rusty stop. Accordingly, both
the British and American air-
forces launched a series of

bombing raids on Ploesti, which
was once known as the ‘white
town of black gold’. After 339
bombers had been shot down
over there during the 25 attacks,
it was called ‘the bombers’
graveyard’ by Allied air crews.
The campaign game allows the
player to fly the 19 missions
attempted by the (presumably
American) 460th Bomb Group,
which was based at Spinazolla
near the East coast of Italy.
Essentially the player is fighting
history; the aim is to get the pro-
duction of oil refineries down
lower than the historical figure
after the B-24s had finished their
attack. Doing better than the
original crews means that you
will shorten the Second World
War.

Thoughtfully, the game also
provides the player with an easy
introductory mission; bombing
another town, Mostar, which is
right on the west coast of Yugos-
lavia, and is therefore easy to
reach from Spinazolla. There is
also a particularly difficult indi-
vidual mission to Bucharest,
which is so far from base that it
requires efficient flying to make
it there and back without carry-
ing so much fuel that there’s no
room for a sufficient number of
bombs.

The screen display does not
show the interior of a cockpit, as
one would usually expect of a
flight simulator. Instead, the B-
24 is viewed from above as an
extremely basic aeroplane
shape, flying over a pleasantly
drawn and detailed landscape.
The first ‘screen’ shows the
landing strip, viewed at close
range, but as soon as the plane
lifts off the player finds himself
looking down at the ten-mile
square surrounding the airbase
from an indeterminate height.
Although, of course, the aerop-
lane can move up and down tens
of thousands of feet, there is no
visual representation of three-

►

ZZAP! 64 October 1987 71

TRATEGY

BLITZKRIEG

Ariolasoft, £9.99 cass f
£12.99 disk

litzkrieg has a
wide, sweeping
sort of scenario,
expressed in its
sub-title - ‘The
game from the
rise of Hitler to
the fall of Dun-
kirk’, with Dun-
kirk crossed out and England
written above it in crayon. It is
immediately apparent that
Blitzkrieg is going to be one of
those ‘change the course of
European history on a grand
scale’ games, and the basic task
facing the player is to conquer
Western Europe in time for tea.
The game runs from May 1st to
September 30th, year
unspecified, at which date,
apparently, the weather
deteriorated; and it is in real
time, with each turn taking
about 15 seconds.

There are some strategy
games which work with a real
time setting, but they are not
very many and they really have
to be a concept designed around
the need for the player to think
and move fast. Having seen sev-
eral real-time wargames which
expect the player to rush divi-
sion counters around as quickly
as possible, I have come to the
conclusion that no game of this
type can be very successful -
and in fact they’re very often
confusing and unplayable. I
wonder if designers incorporate
real time gratuitously because
they feel that computer gamers
expect ‘game space’ action.
Arcade games exist in their own
self-created fantasy world, and
in their own time as well. ‘Real
time’ is a fallacious term; real
time for a wargame would be
weeks or months. Real time
means game time, and by asking
a wargame to exist in game time
the designer squeezes it unav-
oidably into being just that - a
game. Wargames are games, of
course, but unlike arcade games
they are supposed to stand for
and evoke a reality. And real
generals had weeks to make
major strategic decisions, and at
least a day to choreograph a bat-
tle. They certainly did not have
to conquer Western Europe in 40
minutes, which is how long the
instructions say that a game of
Blitzkrieg lasts. They didn’t do it
in an afternoon either, but
games which allow the player as
long as he wants create an illu-
sion of space . . . however much
time they really spend on it.

These are what I would call
the psychological and artistic
objections to a real time war-
game. Blitzkrieg does nothing to
overcome them, having a very
‘toytown’ and unrealistic atmos-
phere. And it demonstrates a
more obvious disadvantage; it’s
impossible, or very difficult, to

72 ZZAP! 64 October 1 987

keep control of everything that’s
going on. Wargamers usually
only have two hands and one
brain, and real time wargamers
of this type seem to require them
to have several of each.

Blitzkrieg is beautifully prog-
rammed and presented, which
makes its rapidly apparent
unplayability all the more disap-
pointing. The game loads with
an optional fast-loader, after a
warning that it will only work
with ‘perfectly aligned’ disk
drives. I was surprised to find
that my disk drive was perfectly
aligned, but the loader is cer-
tainly fast.

The opening options screen
allows the player to spend
resource points on altering the
initial balance of forces, or to
view plan diagrams about the
weaponry used in the game.
Selecting the latter option
brings up a series of attractive
line drawings and a smattering
of information about the tanks,
which, although very pretty,
does little to compensate for the
complete lack of back-up mat-

east of England. There are no
features marked on the on-
screen map, and the cities look
like rabbit’s footprints for some
reason. Fortunately there is a
more informative map on the
reverse of the instruction sheet.
It indicates the names of cities,
shows terrain, and superim-
poses a grid over Europe for easy
reference. When the data card of
each unit is examined, the
player can pin point its position
on the more detailed map. In
principle this is a good idea, but
in practice time seems too pre-
cious when you’re into the
game.

At the top of the screen a
counter ticks away the days at
the rate of one every 15 seconds,
and at the bottom there is an
arrangement which represents
a set of index cards. These are
pulled up — literally - by the func-
tion keys, and are the menus
which drive the game. One gives
access to utility options, one to
the main command menu, one to
the status of the selected unit
and one is a file which keeps

erial in the rules.

You can take the easy way in
and go for the default set-up, but
it is perhaps more interesting to
play about with the industrial
resource units and build yourself
an army. You can choose your
own level of IRIs between 100
and 400 and then spend them on
division strength, medium and
reconnaissance. The allocation
of resources is controlled in the
form of a letter sent to you as the
general, which is the first of
many imaginative and indi-
vidualistic touches in the
design. There are four types of
division - Air and Ground Pan-
zers and Air and Ground
Amphibious - and they can be
bought with or without medium
tanks, which increase the com-
bat value. The amphibious divi-
sions are important if you have
an acquisitive eye on Britain, the
conquest of which is of course
unhistorical and will earn you
80,000 points. When you’ve
finished the next part of the pro-
gram loads, without the fast
loader this time.

The map is split into two
screens, representing the North-
west of Europe and the South-

track of all messages sent to you
by the division commanders.
This is a lovely piece of design,
but despite its originality, one of
the game’s main weaknesses is
caused by this superficially
attractive system.

To give a division any sort of
orders you have to pull up the
appropriate card, and then
adjust the commands on it by
scrolling through a menu for
each part of the order. This is
surprisingly and frustratingly
fiddly, and quite time-consum-
ing too ; first you have to find the
number of the unit you want,
then the kind of movement
order, and then the number of
squares you want it to move.
Sending the order drops the card
back down, and the process has
to be repeated for the next unit.
And there can easily be 16 divi-
sions on the board, all lumbering
forward according to their last
command and coming across
various obstacles. In practice it
is not easy to cope with more
than a handful at a time, which
leaves the rest idle. The game
doesn't pause while you’re grap-
pling with the order card menus,
so every trip of the joystick is

another major setback to the
German Masterplan.

On their progress across
Europe the units can run into
difficult terrain, which will slow
them down or stop them
altogether. When this happens,
the division commanders send
memos — neatly signed with
their own names - to explain
themselves. It is reasonably
difficult to invade the Nether-
lands because of all the bog
about, which brings armies to a
standstill. The way of gaining
more detailed information about
the terrain in each square is to
go into the tactical view, which
reminds me strongly of those
arcade sequences which sit in
the middle of many PSS games
in glorious irrelevance. The tac-
tical view puts the player inside
a tank, and he can rotate the
rights to have a look at the land-
scape outside and plan his route,
or so the instructions say. I found
it difficult to make sense of this
feature.

Cities are captured by the unit
which gets there first, and
turned into red, rather than
black rabbit’s footprints. No
enemy units appear on the map
at all, though their activities are
reported by the division com-
manders, so the game seems to
be little more than a mad dash
across the best terrain to take
out the cities. Lack of success is
abruptly rewarded by Hitler,
usually with a bullet in the brain.

This is not a satisfying game.
It creates no reality and allows
no scope for the exercise of skill,
and because of the real time set-
ting it is not particularly play-
able. The lack of a workable
game is all the more regrettable,
and noticeable, because of the
carefully polished presentation.
It’s nice to see a wargame so
well designed and programmed,
but the best front-end in the
world can’t hide an unsound
game.

PRESENTATION 91%

Slick programming, imagina-
tive design, and a printed map
to supplement the screen dis-
play.

GRAPHICS 88%

The screen map itself is rather
dull and bland, but the rest of
the graphics are very attrac-
tive.

RULES 60%

Minimal, but functional under
the circumstances.

AUTHENTICITY 40%

Creates no sense of realism —
largely because of the ‘real-
time’ setting.

PLAYABILITY 51%

The orders system is pretty but
unwieldy, and it’s difficult to
cope with all the units at once.

OVERALL 55%

Disappointing.

liill

SPATCH ES

Once again a month has gone by and I haven't exactly been
snowed under with mail. Many thanks to those of you who have
written in, but what’s the matter with the rest of you? It doesn’t
hurt you know. Take one sheet of paper, one pen, and cover the
paper with words in an approximately grammatical arrangement.
Pop the paper in an envelope, lick on a stamp, and deposit it in the
letter box. I’m beginning to feel very lonely.

ABSOLUTE BEGINNERS

Hi Philippa!

In the July issue of ZZAP! you
encouraged us all to write to
you, and this is an attempt on a
letter from a Dane, even though
my English isn’t that good. (I hav
lernt englis from e buck). But
beside just being a stroke of
madness, my letter has actually
got a small reason. You see, I am
actually not a war gamer, only a
would-be wargamer. The
trouble is that I don’t know what
game to start with. It should be
an easy game, because I’m not
very experienced, see? Well, I
have played wargames in my
time, Theatre Europe kept me
playing for a while, but in the
end it became too easy for me,
and then it must be very, very
easy. Now I don’t know what
game to play, and then I read
this section in the July issue and
then I thought to myself, ‘I think
this Philippa Irving could help
me,’ and I am still living in the
hope that you can. Please give a
suggestion for a beginner, and
perhaps a suggestion of what
game or games to play next. I’m
getting tired of playing shoot
’em ups and ‘that sort of game’,
which can be really good, but I
just feel I need a change, and
since I know I do not want to

play adventures, wargames
must be the order of the day. I
want to wish you best of luck
with this section. It deserves the
chance, and then we’ve got a yet
more varied magazine - that’s
nice. See you soon . . .

H C Mikkelsen
Skjern, Denmark

You don't say whether you've
got a disk drive or not, which
makes recommending games for
the Commodore difficult. If you
have, I would suggest you inves-
tigate SSI strategy games. They
have an extremely varied
catalogue, from pseudo role-
playing to ‘machine simulation',
and there’s bound to be some-
thing to suit your taste. As for
cassette-based games, I'm so
new to Commodore wargaming
that I couldn’t say with con-
fidence! This is where all you
older readers of the column can
help myself and H C Mikkelsen.
Why don ’t you write in with your
suggestions for two or three
good cassette-based wargames
for the eager beginner, and I’ll
compile a Ust — with your com-
ments - to be published in a
future issue.

THE NEW

• w

TACTICS

This new section of Manoeuvres is designed to provide those
wargamers stuck in the trenches or stranded in the desert
with a way out of their predicament. I can’t play every war-
game extensively enough to be in a position to suggest

fr» r hi«? ieS °l them ’ so we wil1 be relying on you to send

in hints and tips for any game vaguely strategic. Come on
chaps, Commodore strategy needs you!

This month I have some tips

on Shard of Spring from

Philippa Irving of Oxford
with extra suggestions from

John Woods.

In combat, Speed is almost
the most important charac-
teristic. No matter how strong
and skillful a character is, if he
only gets to hit the enemy
once around he’s not going to
be very efficient. Make sure
that speed is high when creat-
ing Warrior characters. For
Wizards it is not so important,
as they should not be put in
the front line of combat —
whatever it says in the rule
book.

Watch out for enemy
Wizards, and magic-using
creatures of all sorts including
Skeletons, Mages and Dra-
gons. The best way to stop
them using magic is to get
them involved in hand-to-
hand combat.

Mass damage spells are
good value, especially if you
put extra magic points into
them. Putting more magic
points into spells than the

minimum required by the rule
book increases their effective-
ness - particularly important
when you need to make an
emergency healing speU in
combat.

Spider’s Bay is the town to
find a Fighter’s Guild, to
increase the level o' your War-
riors. It’s quite far South and a
little to the East of the starting
position, on the South coast of
the island.

Terynor, the magic town, is
where the Wizard’s Guild is
found. It’s in the middle of the
map, in amongst the second
range of mountains you come
across as you journey East.

An interesting place to visit
is Islanda, which can be found
immediately to the South East
of Athe, which is almost
directly East of Spider Bay.

Take heed of the warning in
the rules not to venture too far
East until you’ve gained some
experience! There is a point
on the map where the disk
accesses, and beyond this
49th parallel the random
encounters get really tough.

STRATEGY CHART

Here ’ s your chance to decide the fate of your favourite strategy
games, by voting in the ZZAP! strategy chart. Tell us your fav-
ourite five strategy programs, and at the same time enter a draw
for £20 's worth of software (not necessarily strategic) and a
ZZAP! T-Shirt. Five runners-up will also receive a T-Shirt, so get
your entry in as quickly as possible.

The following are my five favourite strategy
games in order of choice . . .

Name ...
Address

2 .

Should I win this month’s prize, I would like the following £20’s
worth of software . . .

T-Shirt size S[]MQL[]

Completed coupons should be sent to ZZAP!
STRATEGY CHARTS, PO Box 10, Ludlow, Shrop
shire SY8 1DB, to be received no later than Sep-
tember 9th 1987.

a»n. ' ™ as 9 passes

you a one wai

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Pausing only to cut off his left ear, Steve Jarratt gives his post-
impressionist views on Rainbird’s Advanced Art Studio. Is it a giant
among art packages or a mere Toulouse Lautrec?

THE OCP ADVANCED ART
STUDIO

Rainbird, £24.95 Cassette and Disk

A spiring computer artists
will no doubt be familiar
with Rainbird’s first steps
into the world of pixel pictures, the
OCP Art Studio, an art package
which utilises the 64’s hi-res mode
to create monochrome or
attribute-coloured pictures.
Released last year, the packaging
included a slip which mentioned
the Advanced Art Studio - an
upgrade which is now available.

The disk version loads the art
program directly, but before the
cassette version can be used, a
back-up copy has to be made. The
master program asks for details
about your printer, allowing the
user to configure the program cor-
rectly (the default being the Com-
modore MPS 801). The art prog-
ram is saved onto a blank tape
(provided by yourself) and is
loaded in when you want to draw.

No, this is not a picture of Glenys in the morning - it’s a colourful demo
that comes with the advanced art studio package!

The master program is left
untouched, and is only used when
a different configuration is
required or if the copy becomes
damaged.

The program’s protection
comes in the form of a typed input
from the manual - failing to
respond to the program’s request
causes it to crash.

The latest version of the Art
Studio makes full use of the Com-
modore’s capabilities to create full
colour pictures in multi-colour
mode. The utility is totally WIMP
driven (no, this doesn’t refer to the

user) which means that a system
of Windows/Icons/Menus and a
Pointing device is used to manipu-
late the program.

The ‘pointing device’ refers to a
small floating cursor which is used
to access the features and is
moved around via the Keyboard,
Joystick, Koalapad or Mouse
(Datex, AMX or GEOS - not
NEOS). The cursor doubles as the
brush, and. while the two former
methods are sufficient, only the
latter options are considered to be
of any real use.

The cursor tends to be a little
too large and can become slightly
annoying, especially when trying
to do fine work in ‘fill’ and ‘mag-
nify’ modes. A choice of cursors,
or cursor redefine mode would
have be a useful feature to remedy
this problem.

Drawing is carried out via Brush,
Pen or Spray Can, with a variety of
‘nibs’ and spray formations availa-
ble. The brush can be totally rede-
fined to suit requirements, and
may be used to draw many small
items repeatedly - one tree soon
becomes a forest.

A major problem often occurs
when drawing a line ‘freehand’. At
any reasonable speed the line
tends to break up, leaving it dotted
and in need of touching up if a fill
is intended. The only obvious way
around this is to draw more slowly
(very slowly in fact), or to use the
continuous function which con-
nects two defined points with a
straight line. While being quite
effective, this is rather limiting -
:and is practically useless for
^curves.

T -Other drawing functions include
\ rdys from a specified point, and
tba ability to draw squares and
Jrlangles by defining opposing
^cbrhers. Circles are drawn in simi-
Tar fashion, but sadly, the option to
, Create ellipses is missing.

.*»• *♦***#•*

+ s

^4 . tt

*R*n*«T« 'tip -**4*

y *

■■ .

-A’

*76 ZZAPJt6

Points

Lines.

Cant, lines*
Rectangles*

Fife lUindoHsiriagnif ylSHapes.1 His*c

Colour Palette

ndo

► Julian’s masterpiece

demonstrates the wide range
of effects which can be created
by use of the line, circle and fill

The main advantage of the
Advanced Art Studio over its pre-
decessor is the fact that it utilises
the 64’s multi-colour mode - a
definite improvement over the
attribute-ridden hi-res. Although it
allows greater choice of colours,
some care and a little thought
must still be taken to avoid colour
problems. The multi-colour screen
supports a 160 x 200 or 32,000
pixel resolution, but is split into
1000 8 x 4 pixel character

squares or ‘cells’. Each cell can
hold up to four colours, one of
which is the paper or background
colour common to all cells. Posi-
tioning of colour is therefore
slightly affected and attribute
problems can still occur. This
becomes clearly evident when
attempting to put different multi-
coloured patterned fills next to
each other - colours from one pat-
tern tend to bleed into the other,
and the edges become jagged and
discoloured as the machine
attempts to put more than four col-
ours within a cell.

The fill mode is used to colour
larger areas of the picture, and can
be block (single colour) or pattern
filled. Any area can be filled, but it
must be bordered by an unbroken
line, or the colour bleeds out

File lUindOMii

► The palette menu allows fast
selection of any of 16 colours

by, as the name suggests, blowing
up the image to either two, four or
eight times normal size. The
screen can then be moved around
in magnify mode, allowing the
whole picture to be edited in this
manner if necessary.

Text entries can also be added
to pictures and a full font editor is
included so that a new character
set may be designed.

Both versions include a BASIC
‘slide-show’ program which
allows pictures to be loaded onto
the screen without having to load
the whole art studio program.

Bearing in mind the limits of the
64, the Advanced Art Studio pack-
age attempts to be as complete as
possible within the constraints of
the machine. The inclusion of the
Advanced Art Studio's predeces-
sor makes the package tempting,
but there are plenty of other art
packages available including the
superb. Neos Mouse and Cheese.

The Art Studio has an extensive
file-handling system, allowing full
storage and retrieval of digitally
conceived masterpieces. How-
ever, as with any system that uses
lots of access, the cassette ver-
sion is almost unusable. One flaw
with the disk system is the ability
to overwrite same name files by
mistake. Instead of a ‘file already
overwrite y/n?’ prompt,

► Steve’s superlative space pic, partially hidden by the ‘Shapes’ menu

comprehensive windowing sys-
tem, which allows areas of the
screen to be copied or moved
around as desired. Once a window
has been defined, the program
supports the options to Cut and
Paste (effectively copy to another
part of the screen); Cut, Clear and
Paste (move without copying);
Rotate the segment through right
angles; Flip it horizontally or verti-
cally, and even Re-scale it to a dif-
ferent size. Any defined area can
be saved to tape or disk, allowing
a library of picture elements to be
built up for later use.

Digital doodlers will be pleased
to hear that the program also
allows mistakes to be easily cor-
rected using the ‘undo’ option -
effectively cancelling the last com-
mand (Mark, Line, Fill and so on).
After each entry, the previous
screen is stored in memory so that
if a command is entered wrongly
or an unwanted change made, the
previous screen is recalled to be
re-worked. Unfortunately the
‘undo’ option cannot be initiated
while the program carries out a
command. A fill that has gone
wrong cannot, therefore, be can-
celled halfway through: you have
to wait for the rather lengthy pro-
cess to finish before ‘undoing’ it.

This option is also made ineffec-
tive whenever the main screen is
replaced with one of the other,
larger features such as the pattern
edit or magnify mode (this is
because the main display must be
stored while a secondary screen is
brought into play).

The magnify screen can be used
to ‘touch up’ areas of the picture

through the gap. A series of pat-
terns are available within the prog-
ram, and patterns and their repeat
size can also be defined to enable
complex designs to be quickly and
easily created.

A useful and technically impres-
sive feature of the package is its

► Ciaran’s abstract doodling
uses the program’s built-in
character set

exists

the program just goes straight
ahead and carries out the save
operation. If you wanted to load a
picture onto the initial blank
screen, clicking on ‘save’ instead
of ‘load’ initiates the saving of the
blank screen over the named pic-
ture file, effectively erasing it. This
is quite easy to do as the load and
save commands are right next to
each other ... I should know, I’ve
done it!

Bearing in mind the limits of the
64, the Advanced Art Studio pack-
age attempts to be as complete as
possible within the constraints of
the machine, and contains many
features previously unavailable on
other systems. The inclusion of the
Advanced Art Studio's predeces-
sor makes the package tempting,
but there are plenty of other art
packages available including the
superb Neos Mouse and Cheese.

I do recommended this, but with
an element of caution - shop
around, think long and choose
wisely.

STEVE JARRATT

ZZAP! 64 October 1 987 7

1 Circles

Circles*

Rays*

1 las! it

. uus

STIFFLIP SPOT
THE BALL

Cricketing fans were bowled over
as Palace software offered a day
at a test match to the winner of this
Stifflip & Co competition. The prize
went to the first person to correctly
guess the position of an invisible
cricket ball - he was Kent’s Lee
Bassom. As a consolation, 20
prizes of copies of the game are on
their way to . . .

Neeraj Patel, West Midlands,
B70 9NF; Mr R Garcia, Herts, S98
5LP; James Malley, Hampshire,
P09 6AL; Adam Smith, Stafford-
shire, OE13 OPB; John Curtis,
Surrey, RH80QS; Lee McIntosh,

Eastbourne, BN22 ODL; Daniel
Smyth, Hants, S04 3PJ; Richard
Payne, North Yorkshire, Y018
8BA; Philip Whitehouse, Essex,
CM16 5HA; Paul Kirk, Norwich,
NR1 0 5JE; Nik Allonby, Cumbria,
LAI 4 5TU; Paul Foster, Cumbria,
CA13 OLH; J Ball, Hants, GU31
5HY; Sean Hopkins, Hants, P02
OLA; C Caines, Bristol, BS16
3YJ; Paul Dorritt, Royal Anglian,
BFPO 29; Colin Dunn, Tyne and
Wear, SR2 7PL; Michael Sharpe,
Peterborough, PEI 5JQ; Jason
Mooney, London, SE4 1HQ;
Christopher Curtis, Essex, SSI 4
1RB.

DOMARK’S
DAYLIGHTS HOLIDAY

Five simple questions were all that
stood between a lucky ZZAP!
reader and a fortnight’s holiday for
two in the mediterranean - cour-
tesy of Domark. Having waded
through heaps and heaps of cor-
rect entries, Glenys finally came up
with a name - so, without further
ado, the prize goes to Richard
Bamforth of West Yorkshire.
Twenty runners up will be able to
re-enact their favourite scenes
from the movie with a super elec-
tronic key ring. They are . . .

Mr S M Cox, Kent, DA18 4DS; S
Fenton, Staffs, ST9 9LU;
Anthony Gisbourne, West Mid-
lands, WV10 7HR; Aaron Stokes,

Berkshire, RG2 8PP; W Hay,
Tyne and Wear, NE40 3PU; A B
Wragg, South Yorkshire, S70
5TG; Charles Lucas, Leics, LE9
8EH; Stephen Washington, Lan-
cashire, PR4 5BE; Tony David,
Kent, ME10 3AD; Ben Nuroin,
East Sussex, TN33 OAU; Michael
Bushnell, Oxford, 0X3 7AB; Mr
A V Ung, London, SE3 7PY;
David M Woodcock, Surrey,
GU9 9ED; P J Measures, Warks,
CV11 6HD; Nigel Holmes, Cum-
bria, CA2 5QW; Ismail Vali, Sur-
rey, KT3 5NF; Robert Gray,
Devon, EX122BB; James C Eas-
ton, Selkirkshire, TD1 1RL;
Richard Pargeter, Coventry,
CV3 6N J; J Boothby, Lancs, BB6
8DQ.

ZZAP! 64
CHART VOTING COUPON

(Please write in BLOCK CAPITALS)

Name

Address

Postcode

If I win the 240 worth of software I would like the following games:
(Game and Software House)

T-Shirt Size S/M/L

1 am voting for the following five games:

I am also voting for the following piece of music:
(Commodore 64 ONLY)

ZZAP! CHARTS, PO BOX 1 0, LUDLOW,
SHROPSHIRE SY8 1 DB

CUDDLY CONSPIRACIES

Little did we know when we
announced this Head over Heels
competition that we would be
sparking off such ludicrous
amounts of gamesmanship,
skullduggery and downright brib-
ery - all to win a pair of enormous
cuddly toys. We even had an entry
from Jon Ritman, who laid claim to
the prize simply because he wrote
the game! The competition was
eventually won by Scotland’s
Daniel Legden, who wanted the
two cuddly characters to help him
get the chocolate biscuits off the
top shelf! Congratulations Daniel,
the dynamic duo will be on their
way to Scotland as soon as they
can escape from ZZAP! towers.
The following 50 runners up will
have to make do with a copy of
one of the greatest games ever
released . . .

Paul Kirk, Mill Street, Buxton;
Trevor Stow, Herts, AL6 0JQ;
Tony Jones, Aberdeenshire,
AB5 5QN; Gary Llewellyn, Can-
vey Island, Essex; Robert Grace,
Coventry, CV2 5BJ; Jonathan R
Knox, Eaglescliffe, Cleveland;
Arwel Owen, Gwynedd, LL65
1LR; William Callaghan, West
Midlands, DY4 8AS; Joga S
Bains, Kent, ME4 6UG; Graeme
Clark, Lancs, OL15 0BT; Paul
Coulson, Nr Stamford, Lines;
Gareth Goodman, Warwick-
shire, CV21 1JB; Simon Blair,
Derbys, DE4 3BX; Robert Grace,
West Midlands,

CV2 5BJ; Simon
Wicker, Herts,

WD0 SHU;

Edward Beirne, London, NW1
1ST; Marie Darlington, Shrop-
shire, TF1 4TS; John Coutts,
Scotland, AB1 4TS, Simon
Kavanagh, London, E9 7HT;
Paul Roast, London, SW19 6PS;
Kieran Flynn, Co Tipperary, Ire-
land; David Brown, South Hum-
berside, DN34 5RB; Steven
Barnfather, Scotland, TD9 7DD;
Mathew Pearce, London, SW16
2BX; Rick Dowling, Cheshire,
WA13 0RD; Dyfed, SA68 0RH;
Richard Pargeter, Coventry,
CV3 6N J; Merondus Hasky, Lon-
don, N12 0BQ; James Veal,
Avon, BS20 8EH; David Harker,
Staffs, ST8 7SA; Aron Pullan,
Kirkstead, LS4 2JY; Marten Van
Zwietering, Hants, GU32 3BX;
Leon Cox, Lancs, BB8 6DD;
Colin Hall, Harrogate, North
Yorkshire; Andrew Pitchforth,
Wakefield, West Yorkshire; Ian
Wilson, Tyne and Wear, NE10
0TD; Robin Taylor, Telford, TF3
1TQ; Sarah Smith, Essex, C06
3RY; Richard Plumb, Leicester,
LE2 0AL; Stuart Wright, Surrey,
GU15 4YL; Phil Yard, Surrey,
CR2 0BN; lain Tattershall,
Plymouth, PL6 7JU; Andrew
Houghton, Winaters Green,
Redditch; Robert MacIntyre,
Cheshire, SK8 3AT; James P
Gannaway, Southampton,
Hampshire; Nick Bell, Glasgow,
G53 7QZ; Ian Hewitt, Yorkshire,
S6 4RA; Guy Parkinson, Pre-
stbury, Cheltenham; Darren
Morris, Essex, RM8 2DE;
D Hallam, Castle
Donnington,
DE72PP.

Ludlow’s historical
monuments

zszxzxz*- z^. T-shiny ^ c^,

foamett, Hatfield, Herts * —

Commodore 64 Disk £14.95

Commodore 64 Cass £9.95

Spectrum 48 Cass £8.95

Spectrum 128 Cass £9.95

Commodore Plus/4 (64k). . .£9.95

IBM PC £19.95

Atari ST £19.95

(IBM and Atari for Christmas)

High speed one or two pilot actipp

Computer idpponent has advandec
artificial intelligence at 20 skillile\

combat

variety of
Imimilm.

1-3' Htiywrt) Crescent, Harrogate, HG1 IMG, -England Tot. 0423 121 V21
24 hr tejphone ordering 0423 1 04003 Telex: 201071 \l6\REf G Quoting

HEAD TO HEAD
CONFLICT

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run- ««« it®

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CPC Cassette

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Commoa

Amstrad

ST l^ 9

: :•

Please make crossed cheques or postal orders payable to Virgin Games Ltd
and send to Virgin Games, 2/4 Vernon Yard, Portobello Road, London W11 2DX.

PLEASE DO NOT POST COINS OR MONEY!

□ Commodore 64/128 (£ 9 . 95 ) □ Spectrum 48/128 (£ 9 . 95 )

* Name

Address

Total money enclosed

ith BREND

Play By Mail (PBM) gaming is a hobby which has been about in the UK
commercially for a good 1 6 years or so now. Over the last year however, it
has hit a sudden boom period with many new players flooding in and
numerous (and sometimes dubious) companies fighting for a share of the
market. You may well have heard of PBM gaming through friends - if this is
the case, and you don't have4he foggiest idea what they're on about, then
read on and learn!

PBM - WOZZAT?

Imagine sitting at your Commodore
playing a strategy wargame which
included perhaps ten other players
all fighting against and working with
each other. That is the essence of
Play By Mail gaming - only the
postal system and a time delay
replace the keyboard and VDU. \
Here's the way it works . . .

A game environment is created
by the Game Moderator (GM),
becoming home to numerous
player controlled charters and/or
entitles. Players post to the GM
instructions (ORDERS) for whatthey
would like to do to try to improve
their present situation. The GM is
paid to receive all of these orders
sheets and to process them together
(using a computer), therefore
making all of the necessary players
characters interact (fight or trade
perhaps). When this has been done
a turn is complete. TheGM posts to
each player an individual and
unique report on the present
situation in the game. And so it
continues.

Games may be human
moderated, computer moderated
or computer assisted. The ways in
which the game is moderated
affects its feel, but (unless it's very
amateur) not its quality. Supporters
of Role Playing Games tend to
favour human moderated games, as
human GMs are much more flexible
when it comes to imaginative orders
than computers could ever hope to
be. Conversely, space-based games
generally lose out on atmosphere if
the turn reports are handwritten
sheets rather than computer
generated print-outs.

WHAT'S ABOUT?

There are many scenarios available
for play by mail gamers to choose
from. That said, they do all tend to
somehow fit into one of five main
categories (sometimes more):
Science Fiction, Strategic, Tribal,
Role Playing and Logistical.

Generally speaking however, few
games fit into any one category.
Some are science fiction with
fantasy overtones, others may be

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tribal games which involve both the
use of logistics to perhaps feed a
tribe while using strategy in battle
against other tribes. There is really
no clear definition. You can
generally tell by reading magazine
reports and advertising what a
particular game may involve. You
pays your money and takes your
choice.

MONEY!!?!

Yes -money. Sadly, PBM
companies do not run as charities.
They charge for their services. It is
common for them to charge a flat
rate start-up fee (which may pay for
your first few turns) followed by a
turn fee ranging from 70p per
completed orders sheet
(incidentally, you can fit a lot on
these) to over £3.00 for the most
common games. Overall, the
average game fee is about £1 .50 per
turn. Fair enough you say, but how
often does a 'turn' take place? This
again varies from game to game.
Some games process turns once
every ten days, some once a month .

These are deadline games-the idea
being that your order form reaches
the GM by a set day and he
processes all of the forms
simultaneously with and interfering
actions cancelling each other outto
come up with a victor. Meanwhile,
a number of games have no fixed
deadlines. They process your turn
as and when you send it in and the
game will continue with or without
you every day. These are open-
ended games.

FINALE

Play By Mail games are
characterised by the long spans of
time they cover - you must bear in
mind that a PBM campaign is no
one-day campaign, it can go on for
years! Normally, a game will
continue until there is a clear victor
(perhaps the only survivor?) or until
some winning requirement is met by
a player. This is often achieved by
setting a quest, or asking for a
certain points score to be reached
to win. It depends greatly upon the
game you choose to play. There

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RESULTS

information and so on can be the
key to a good game, it's simply a
combination of bluff, bluff, double
bluff, lies and an ounce of truth.
What is more, it's great fun and very
difficult to describe. You must
experience it to appreciate it (said
the actress to the bishop).
Diplomacy is often more enjoyable
than the game itself, and definitely
the most time consuming!

should be an idiot's guide on 'How
To Win' somewhere within the
games rulebook . . .

Ultimately, of course, games can
end due to acts of God (computer
failure perhaps), low popularity, or

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GM boredom. Fortunately such
closes are rare enough to be
discounted - almost.

THE BEST BIT

Move Number . ]

The best part of Play By Mail games,
for me, though is the art of
Diplomacy. In between turns you
will find that players (once they
have met within the game) will
begin contacting each other
through the post, by telephone, or
even in person in an attempt to work
together or against each other. This
act of communication is called
diplomacy. Clever diplomacy -
conning the right players while
allying with others, picking the right
fights, leaking the odd bit of false

HOW DO I JOIN A
GAME?

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<T) I Attack I Naval Rout* I Dest I

This too is easy. All you do is write
to their address, perhaps sendingan
stamped addressed envelope for
information on their games and see
what they have to offer. Once this is
done, pick and choose between
them and send off the start-up fee to
whatever you fancy. I shall start
featuring some games next month.
Keep on reading!

84 ZZAP! 64 October 1 987

MITRE GAMES, 189 Balham High Road, London,
SW12

ORION GAMES, 6 St Austell Road, Manchester, M I b

BRENDONS BRIEF

GUIDE TO THE M/UOR
BRITISH PBM
COMPANIES

PHOENIX GAMES, Stoneloigh, Molly Lane, Upper
Ellwood, Coleford, Glos? GLI6 7 LZ
RAMPAGE GAMES, 37 Beech wood, Woodlestord,
Leeds, LS2(> 8PQ

SLOTH ENTERPRISES, Freepost, PO Box 82,
Southampton, hants, S09 7FG
SPELLBINDING GAMES, PO Box 33, Wallingford,
Oxon, 0X10 OEB

VENGEANCE GAMES, 6 Rose Farm Fold, Altofts,
Nornlanton, West Yorks

VORCON GAMES, 59 juniper, Birch Hill, Brae knell
Berks, RG 12 4ZG

HARROW POSTAL GAMES, 161 Butler Road, Harrow,
Middlesex, HA1 4DX

ICBM, PO Box 94, Bath Street, Walsall, West Midlands.
JADE GAMES, PO Box 54, Southsea, P04 ON A
KJC GAMES, PO Box 1 1 , Cleveleys, Blackpool, Lancs,
FY5 2UL '

LEGEND INC LTD, 38 Overton drive, Chadwell Heath,
Romford, Essex, RM6 4EA
LOREWARDEN GAMES, 23 Breckhill Road,
Woodthorpe, Nottingham

These art 1 some of the best established PBM ( ompames in Britain.
There are many others, and hopefully we'll be* one ountering them all
in later issues. Readers from outside of the l IK may be interested to note
that these companies also catei for you!

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SUPER HANG-ON

COURSE

STB6E 1

peed

Roaring into your local arcade in a
shower of dust and rubber comes
Sega’s new mean machine - the
latest and greatest motorcycle
racing game, Super Hang-On.
This sequel to the highly success-
ful Hang-On features improved
graphics, hills and bumps, four
tunes, four different courses and a
^ turbo booster.

Play starts with the prompt to
choose between Beginner, Junior
Senior and Expert levels. These
comprise courses of 6, 1 0, 1 4 and
18 tracks which are raced across
Asia, Africa, America and Europe
respectively. When the level is
selected the screen prompts four
tunes, one of which is then chosen
to blast out of the machine’s twin
speakers.

Pulling back on the throttle
accelerates the cycle, causing it to
burn down the track at an alarming
rate. When 280 km/h is reached,
the speedometer flashes red,
informing the player that the
‘turbo’ button next to the throttle
is ready to be pressed. Doing so
sends the cycle rocketing down
the course at an incredible speed
- with the acceleration increasing
until the turbo is switched off! The
feeling of exhilaration is incredible
and the effect is further enhanced
by the handlebars shaking consid
erably as dangerous speeds are
reached.

The graphics are outstanding,
with amazing backdrops and use
of colour across all levels, and the
different tracks add plenty of
scope for long-term play. We both
thought this to be the best racing
game we’ve ever played - even
better than Out Run\. Look out for
this one . . . but make sure that
you’ve got plenty of change.

■ f twit*!

. ? I

Pinball tables have been with us
since the 50’s, and now Atari and
Sega have joined forces to inject
life into the genre with a new video
simulation. Purists may think that
a video interpretation of a pin table
could never recreate the ‘feel’ of
the real thing, but Time Warn man-
ages to capture all the thrills and
spills of the silver ball, as well as
adding new features which
couldn’t be utilised in a real pinball
machine.

The action takes place over four
beautifully drawn scrolling tables,
Ruins, Volcano, Saqqara and Final
(each with its own distinctive tune),
with progression from one level to
another achieved by shooting
down a ‘warp hole’. There are
plenty of features, including an
amazing multi-ball sequence, and
constant surprises and hidden
bonuses to keep the player on his
toes.

The screen is set into an impres-
sive-looking console, incorporat-
ing a large grip at the bottom with
fire buttons mounted either side.
Moving the grip jostles the
playfield, and the ball changes
course accordingly - enhancing

the realistic pinball feel.

Time Warp is an enjoyable and
strangely addictive diversion from
blasting or fighting - try it!

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STERS

Atari’s new all-action road racing
game comes in two formats - a
stand-up System I console, and a
very long and distinctive sit-in
cabinet. The player takes control
of an incredible hi-tech car with
front-mounted twin blasters, and
takes part in a rally of the future.

The race is split into different
sections, with the end of each level
marked by a checkpoint which
must be reached before fuel runs
out. Heavily armoured Cars,
Jeeps, turbo-charged Stingers
and roadside Gun Emplacements
try to stop you reaching your
objective - this is where your blas-
ters come in handy. Extra
weaponiy comes from a support
craft which flies in at regular inter-
vals and drops a module on top of
the car. Cruise missiles, UZ can-
non and an Electro Shield add
deadly firepower, while Nitro Injec-
tion increases the top speed and
acceleration of the car by a
frightening amount.

Diminishing fuel supplies are
replenished by running over the
red and green fuel pods which
appear at regular intervals - the
supply is also completely topped
up when a checkpoint is reached.

The combination of racing and
blasting works superbly, and the
amazing graphics and sound gen-
erate a great feeling of exhilaration
and excitement - especially in the
sit-in version.

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► A giant robot bars the way - what now?

BIONIC

COMMANDOS

This multi-directionally scrolling
Capcom coin-op scores very
highly in the ‘cute’ stakes, as the
Bionic Commandos in question
are two fresh-faced soldiers
equipped with blasters and bionic
arms. Their objective is to penet-
rate enemy lines, and to achieve
the ultimate aim of destroying the
enemy fortress - a task which
requires the negotiation of a series
of increasingly difficult levels.

The mission begins in a dense
forest, with enemy soldiers attack-
ing from the outset. Opponents
vary from Grunts - destroyed by
one laser blast - to Commanders,
who absorb a number of hits
before dying. Later levels feature
soldiers in fantastic exo-skeletons
(not unlike the Scout Walkers in
Return of the Jedi), and huge, bril-
liantly animated robots which rise

to a height of several screens.

The bionic arms come in handy
when climbing. A press of the fire
button shoots a metal rope which
is then used to swing on. Should
the player want to climb, the fire
button retracts the arm and takes
the Commando upwards with it.

When the forest is negotiated,
the commandos undergo a
hazardous climb up the front of the
searchlight-swept fortress. They
then negotiate a series of rat-
infested sewers before assaulting
the inside of the castle itself.

Bionic Commandos is quite
difficult, and will probably require
plenty of practice - however, it’s
well worth the time and money!
Nobody has yet announced that
they have the computer conver-
sion rights, which is a shame - it
would make a brilliant 64 game!

The heroic Commando ponders where to go next - the way upward
seems blocked.

ZZAP! 64 October 1987 89

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This one, two or three-player Atari
race game is quite old , but has just
been re-released with a new set of
tracks and two tweaks to the
gameplay - the removal of the
extra score facility and the addi-
tion of a fast helicopter. There are
12 increasingly difficult tracks to
race over, with the sequence
beginning again when the twelfth
has been completed.

The entire track is viewed from
above, with four tiny racers par-
ticipating. A race is played over
four laps, and the rule is sim-
ple .. . ‘winner stays on’.
Throughout the race, spanners
appear on the road and are picked
up when run over. When three are
collected the player is given the
opportunity to add an extra feature
to his car - these include extra
traction, turbo speed and faster
acceleration. There are five levels
to each feature, and a car with all
1 5 is one mean street machine.

Electric Dreams have just about
completed their conversion of this
highly enjoyable and playable
game - but whether it achieves the
playability of the arcade version
remains to be seen.

NINTENDO

PLAYCHOICE 10 1

AND II

These novel machines give the
player a finite amount of time per
coin to play any combination of the
ten games on offer. Having
quenched the machine’s monet-
ary thirst, the player chooses a
game and plays until the allotted
time expires (instructions are
available on each game, although
precious time is wasted by reading
them). A warning is given when
time is running out, allowing the
action to be extended by the inser-
tion of more money.

The interesting thing about both
Nintendo Playchoice 10 machines
is that all the games involved have
appeared on the Nintendo games
console in Japan and America,
and have been perfectly con-
verted. This machine could there-
fore be used by Nintendo console
owners to playtest a game before
purchase, or even to preview
things to come!

Nintendo Play 1 0 1 offers a great
deal of choice. Three of the games
involve shooting (Duck Hunt,
Hogan’s Alley and Wild Gunman),
and utilise the machine’s front-
mounted light aun to provide

plenty of fun (especially when
played with friends). Arcade action
is provided by the incredibly play-
able Super Mario Bros, the fun-
filled Excitebike and Gradius, the
perfect Nemesis clone, while
sports fans are catered for by the
inclusion of Tennis and Golf. All of
the above (with the exception of
Gradius), are currently available
for the Nintendo games console.

The second machine is purely
arcade-orientated, with games
ranging from sport to shoot ’em
up. Trojan and Rush ’n’ Attack (a
byte-for-byte copy of the ever-
popular Green Beret) are very
playable, and Track and Field, a
straightforward copy of the Taito’s
original joystick-waggling arcade
machine, also provides fun for a
while. Golf is a pleasant diversion
from blasting and adventuring, but
it’s straight back to the action with
a faithful version of Capcom’s
1942. The less memorable games
are Metroid, Super Start Force,
Lunar Ball and Bomber Man,
which only provide a limited
amount of fun.

KARNOV

Data East’s colourful shoot ’em up
adventure, Kamov, is very much in
the vein of the classic Ghosts ’n ’
Goblins. The scenario sees the
player take control of Karnov, a
hero with bulging physique and
athletic abilities, guiding him
across a hazard-filled, horizontally
scrolling landscape.

The object is to battle all the way
to the castle and confront King
Nasty, who is creating havoc and
generally making Karnov’s people
unhappy. Along the way, Karnov is
accosted by flying Gremlins,

sword-wielding Zombies, enorm-
ous Dragons and animated
Statues which hurl giant rocks
(which actually look like giant
ginger nut biscuits). The hero
defends himself with an unlimited
supply of rocks, sometimes taking
more than one shot to despatch
an enemy. Along the way to the
head honcho’s domain, objects
are found and picked up to add to
Karnov’s abilities.

Fans of Ghosts ’n ’ Goblins are
well catered for by this highly play-
able coin-op. The only slight fault
is that there’s really nothing new
on offer to hold your interest for
long periods.

► A giant statue proves too much for poor old Karnov, who gracefully
expires.

Other video goodies to watch out for include Atari’s fabulous spy
thriller/arcade adventure, Rolling Thunder, the tiring but immensely
playable Combat School, R-Type (a Nemesis-style shoot ’em up
which knocks the pants off the opposition) and Double Dragon , an
exceptionally vile beat ’em up! Watch out for reports on these in
forthcoming issues.

Many thanks to Bob Underhill at Joyland, Knutsford for his invaluable help in
compiling this feature.

■

02mnnD

*****

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jJJfP In the knife-edge world of the vigilante there

r no place to rest, no time to think- but look sharp - there i,

is always time to die! From the city subways to the gangland ghettos you will always encounter the disciples of
evil whose mission it is to exterminate the only man on earth who dares to throw down the gauntlet in their path -the
_ _ __ p-& ==I Renegade. A breathtaking conversion of the arcade hit by Taito now for your home computer,
lyyyyyyyj# With all the originahplay features. PLAY RENEGADE... PLAY MEAN!

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tan and Ollie have fallen out
again folks. Stan got in the
way of a custard pie thrown
by Ollie, and now he’s out for
revenge!

Before the chase commences,
you have the option of altering the
game settings for one or two
players, specifying the controls for
each character and also setting
the number of flans that need to be
successfully thrown to win the
game.

The chase is displayed using
three displays: one each for the
two main characters (in glorious
monochrome), and an information
panel showing the state of the cur-
rent game.

The two characters initially
appear outside a map shop where
a map of the city is purchased.
Once bought, the map is shown in
the central display panel and
scrolls as the character moves.

The aim of the game is to guide
your character around town to the
pie shop, buy flans and then find
your opponent a chuck them in his
face.

Thundering through the streets
and alley is tiring, and this is shown
by the colour of their faces in the

afraid that
of the
classic comedy
duo (which
includes me by
way) have very little to
about over this latest
Advance release. Comedy is a
very difficult concept to por-
tray in something as inflexible
as a computer game and Laurel
and Hardy fails miserably.
Indeed the game itself ‘also
fails on several counts, most
notably the distinct lack of
action. As your character
whizzes around screen after
screen of uninteresting back-
ground, a general feeling of
disorientation sets in and the
large town layout means that it
could be ages before the duo
meet up again. Take your ten
quid, go into Woolies and buy
one of the videos of these
classic comedies. That way
you’ll get at least* an hour’s
entertainment rather than
none at all .

► T ogether at last, the whacky twosome continue their adventure

display panel. Finding and enter-
ing a pub refreshes the whacky
pair, and discovering a bicycle
helps them to negotiate the town
more speedily.

What has hap-
pened to my two
favourite comedy
film stars?
They’ve

reduced to playing
absolutely awful Spy Vs Spy
clone which is devoid of
excitement, action and addic-
tion. The gameplay is
hopelessly unbalanced, with
hours of fruitless searching to
be endured before a pie is
found, and another age spent
looking for the adversary.
When you find him you have
about half a second’s enjoy-
ment of slinging a pie, before
going back to the search.
Where has all the spontaneous
slapstick of the films gone?

PRESENTATION 81%

Superb range of options, bril-
liantly presented but flawed by
the chronic game structure.

GRAPHICS 56%

Poor characters populate an
innovative (but bland) black and
white landscape.

SOUND 18%

Pathetic rendition of the Laurel
and Hardy theme which seems
to have a mind of its own.

HOOKABILITY 31%

The disorientating method of
viewing locations soon leads to
confusion and disinterest.

LAST ABILITY 18%

There’s a complete lack of
action, which presents an
enormous hurdle to even the
most avid fan.

OVERALL 17%

Another fine mess that Advance
have aotten themselves into.

NIGHT ON THE TILES

Firebird, £7.95 cass, joystick or keys

I t’s a hard life trying to survive on
the streets. Take me for exam-
ple - if I want to eat, I have to go
and get it myself. It’s fishbones
tonight, and plenty of them. Once
I’ve collected all four fishbones on
this block, I can claim it as my ter-
ritory and move onto the next one.
Mind you, it’s no easy task. Owls

A night on the
tiles without the
effects of the
morning after?

Sounds too good
to be true. Unfortunately this
little experience is only for the
feline type. The movement of
this particular moggy is very
sleek and decidedly cat-like,
and the streetscape back-
grounds are quite atmos-
pheric. However, the sound
effects are fairly basic and
switching to the music track
offers little improvement to the
atmosphere. Ultimately, there
is altogether too little depth in
the game to retain any lasting
interest.

swoop out of the air and if you
don’t head-butt them in time,
you’re dead meat -only eight lives
left. Then there’s the hedgehogs -
I can spit at them, jump them or
outrun them. Either way they’re to
be avoided, because one stick
from those spines and its hello to
life number seven.

Frogs aren’t too much hassle,
but don’t hang around near one or
your energy drops. I also have to
take care at the end of the block by
old Mr Brown’s. He hates cats. If I
go up there too early, he’ll chuck
an old bucket at me and it’s good-
bye to yet another life!

The final danger, if you can call
it that, comes from the fleas. Great
brown jumping things they are -
let one of them on you and you
can’t shake it off.

► It’s cool for cats - out on the
prowl, Firebird style

It makes a nice
change to take
control of animal
instead of a droid
or a spaceship -
especially when they are por-
trayed as well as this. The ani-
mation is absolutely superb,
and the sprites look gorgeous.
The gameplay is fairly
straightforward, and even
though it seems a touch too
difficult at first, I soon got
through to the second level so
perseverance is the name of
the game. I really don’t con-
sider Night on the Tiles to be an
essential purchase, but it’s too
niqe to be ignored, and it offers
a good bit of fun.

There’s plenty of mice scurrying
around the block and they provide
a decent meal for a peckish tom. I
get ‘prowl points’ for collecting my
fishbones and each mouse that I
manage to catch - this goes
toward my final score for the even-
ing.

PRESENTATION 54%

Limited options, and the use of
the space bar to ‘spit’ is a nui-
sance.

GRAPHICS 93%

Breathtaking sprites and anima-
tion.

SOUND 71%

The funky piano soundtrack fits
the game well, although the
effects are merely adequate.

HOOKABILITY 69%

Initially off-putting but persever-
ence reaps its own rewards.

INSTABILITY 67%

Getting from block to block pro-
vides a fair challenge, although
the repetitive gameplay might
pall after a while.

OVERALL 78%

The feline equivalent of Green
Beret, and pretty good fun it is
too.

92 ZZAP! 64 October 1987

FISH .

PROWL POINTS
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PRESENTATION 81%

Plenty of options for a wide vari-
ety of steaming antics.

GRAPHICS 57%

Purely functional, simplistic vec- •
tor graphics.

SOUND 32%

Atmospheric spot effects, but lit-
tle else.

HOOKABILITY 65%

Difficult to get into, but then driv-
ing a train isn’t easy!

LASTABILITY 64%

Plenty of depth and challenge for
the enthusiast who’s willing to
persevere.

OVERALL 67%

A reasonable simulation which
should be popular with train
addicts - but not with those who
like their action a little faster.

I can’t say that I’m
in any way
enamoured with
Evening Star, but
then I’m not a
steam enthusiast either. If you
do enjoy steam trains then this
simulator might be just what
you’re looking for. It certainly
seems to cover all bases, and
has plenty of elements which
appeal from a realism point of
view. My only real objection is
to the fact that this program
does not seem to make any
technical advances over the
achievements of its predeces-
sor. The vector graphics are
still appalling, with the update
time hovering around the one
second mark! If you liked Hew-
son’s last steam train
simulator, then check this one
out.

F ollowing on the tracks of
Southern Belle comes Hew-
son’s second steam train
simulation, Evening Star. This
legendary locomotive made the
run between Bath and Bour-
nemouth on the Somerset and

► the Evening Star approaches
Bath

should be adhered to, as there are
heavy penalties for running late.

Care must also be paid to sig-
nals, otherwise a fatal collision
could occur. Reckless driving also
results in a loss of safety points, or
even in the train being derailed.

There are two stops to be made
along the route -and overshooting
either station loses efficiency
points (Bournemouth also
includes an extra hazard, as the
buffers must be avoided). Failure
to brake carefully can also result in
a jerky stop, causing the passen-
gers to be thrown into each other’s
laps.

When the train finally chugs into
Bournemouth, points are awarded
for safety, economy and
timekeeping. Can you pass the
test?

I’ve only got a
passing interest
in steam trains,
so Evening Star
hardly captured
my attention. The gameplay is
quite involved, and it takes a
fair amount of perseverance to
drive the train correctly - and
successfully adhering to the
timetable is a further chal-
lenge! Although the graphics
are rather simplistic and slow,
there’s plenty in this simula-
tion to keep you going. If
you’re a real train enthusiast,
Evening Star may well give
some pleasurable evenings as
you take a simulated steam
ride down the line to Bour-
nemouth.

Dorset Line, and this simulation
allows you to relive the glory days
of steam railway by travelling the
same route.

The main screen shows the
train’s progress as it thunders
through exotically named villages,
including Wellow, Chilcompton,
Henstridge and Binegar. Through-
out the journey the timetable

EVENING STAR

Hewson, £8.95 cass, £12.95 disk, keys only

HYSTERIA

Software Projects, £8.95 cass, joystick or keys

PRESENTATION 89%

Great high-score table and a
neat and informative on-screen
display.

GRAPHICS 86%

Superb backdrops com-
plemented by effective sprites
and gorgeous animation.

SOUND 82%

A stirring soundtrack pushes the
player along on his task.

HOOKABILITY 78%

Difficult at first, but always possi-
ble.

INSTABILITY 70%

Only three time levels to
negotiate - but they should still
take some mastering.

OVERALL 83%

An exciting, absorbing and
highly visual adventure!

► A handy jetpack gives the sole survivor of the ‘Time Corps’
added destructive powers

A long the corridors of time,
a monster stalks. From the
depths of antiquity a cur-
rently extinct being has been
drawn forward through time by a
fanatical sect intent on the disrup-
tion of Earth’s future. As the being
materialises in temporal zones
where it should never exist, the
fabric of time itself becomes
strained. If left unchecked, the
phenomenon is aggravated to the
point where history collapses -
taking Mankind’s future with it.

A lone survivor of the once elite
‘Time Corps’ has been enlisted to
push the entity back through time
and into its own era where it can
no longer pose a threat. Armed
only with an energy conversion kit,
the agent battles his way through

There may be
some justifica-
tion for the argu-
ment that Hys-
teria offers
nothing new, but what’s there
is really polished and a lot of
fun to play. Graphically, this is
one of the few games where all
of the sprites and backdrops
are of an equally high standard
- the death of the on-screen
character is so pretty that I
was almost hoping to die so
that I could see it again! The
pace is fast and furious, and
there’s a large amount of exp-
loration and problem-solving
to be carried out if the levels
are to be successfully con-
quered. The one minor draw-
back is the fact that there are
only three levels to complete,
but the standard of these is so
high that this can virtually be
ignored.

three horizontally-scrolling time
zones to confront the monster.

The energy conversion kit is
used to alter ordinary objects into
specific utilities which can be used
in the mission. Items such as
energy arrows, shields and wings
can be produced once sufficient
objects have been collected. The
available utility is indicated by an
arrow over one of the panels at at
the bottom of the screen. Pulling
down on the joystick and pressing
the fire button initiates that item,
but the equipment thus gained
only lasts a short period of time, so
care must be used in selecting the
appropriate equipment.

The inhabitants of each era,
slightly displeased at the appear-
ance of a futuristic hunter and his
hideous quarry, have summoned
mythological creatures to dispel
the chronological interlopers.

These legendary creatures are
quickly despatched using the
energy weapons, but contact with
them depletes the agent’s life-
force. If it is allowed to drop to
zero, he explodes into a shower of
bubbles and the fate of Mankind is
sealed.

Before confronting the monster,
a series of clues are found. Statues
line walls and are broken when
fired upon, revealing a puzzle
piece. These fit together to form a
portrait of one of the conspirators.
When this picture is complete, the
monster appears - from here on
only a vicious and sustained attack
can weaken it sufficiently to force
it back through time. When this is
achieved, the agent follows the
being into the next era to continue
his task. When the third battle is
completed, the creature is thrown
back from whence it came, and
mankind is saved!

Although there
are only three
levels to battle
through, they are
difficult enough
to pose a long-lasting and
enjoyable challenge. Initially,
the action is almost too frus-
trating to be true. Countless
times I managed to reach the
creature at the end of the first
level and died - but I still kept
coming back. There’s some-
thing in the gameplay that
really gets you, and you feel
that you just have to kill the
creature and progress to the
next level. Once you get there,
it starts all over again!!! The
graphics and sound are
exceptionally pretty, and work
extremely well together to give
an impressive effect. Hysteria
is rather off-beat, but it should
be checked out if you want a
blast with a difference.

Software Pro-
jects are once
again becoming a
force to be
reckoned with,
and Hysteria can only continue
this trend. It’s another treat for
the eyes and ears, but look out
patience - this one’s a real
toughie! The graphics are
really good, especially the
sprites. Minotaurs, horses,
harpies and skeletons are all
beautifully depicted and the
backdrops are splendidly
drawn with tremendous use of
colour. My only niggle (I have
to have one don’t I?) is that the
game only has three levels and
relies on difficulty to stop you
finishing it rather than depth.
Still, it’s a good romp and
should keep you occupied for
some time.

► Sword-wielding skeletons give
chase as the hero dashes
through an ancient city

PILE-UP!

Reaktor, £9.99 cass, £12.99 disk, joystick only

O nce again Earth is in
trouble. Energy reserves
are at an all-time low, and
new sources are desperately
needed. In a remote part of the
Universe, a strange phenomenon
has been discovered and termed
the Pile-Up. This consists of a
16x16 landscape made up of light
and dark squares. Many of the
light squares are taken up by black
marble-like spheres of pure

The first thing
that struck me
about Pile-Up!
was the infuriat-
ingly sensitive
control method employed in
guiding the ship around. I
gained some kind of profi-
ciency after a while, but I never
felt totally in control of the pro-
ceedings. As regards the
gameplay, Pile-Up! is little
more than an exercise in
forced dexterity, with scarce
entertainment value and no
real lasting appeal. What it
does offer is well
implemented, but there’s just
not enough in there.

Unusual control
methods are all
very well, but
when they’re as
frustrating as this
it ruins the game in question.
Guiding the ship over the
nicely drawn landscape is
enjoyable - until you try to land
on a sphere. One wrong move
and the ship crashes around
like a drunken fly, and after a
few more seconds it’s
destroyed. After some prac-
tice I managed to start collect-
ing spheres, but playing a
game which you know could
end because of one wrong
move isn’t too enjoyable. If
Pile-Up!*s control method
wasn’t so uncompromising
then it could have offered a lot
of fun, but as it stands the
gameplay is a little too
finnicky.

energy - a much needed source of
power.

The light squares rise and fall,
carrying their host marble with
them. As the spheres’ height
increases, their energy level also

^Doinottiedveianyii

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* — ■ - ■ - - ■ -

> 191 .301 r 0

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: £ r t t.

The aim of the first level of
Pile-Up! is plain to see

changes, indicated by a corres-
ponding alteration in their colour.

The authorities have commis-
sioned a special vessel which can
collect the energy stored within
the alien constructions. The player
pilots of one these craft, and trans-
fers energy from the marbles to the
transformer station, ready for
transportation back to Earth.

The ship is steered by joystick,
and pressing the fire button oper-
ates the thrusters, thereby causing
it to rise. Releasing the button
allows the ship to fall under the
influence of gravity. Marbles are
picked up by landing exactly on
top of them, whereupon the
energy is stored in the ship’s
energy chamber.

Flying to the transformer is by
no means safe, as collision with
the surrounding landscape results
in an energy drain. On reaching the
transformer, perfectly aligning the
ship results in the energy being
automatically transferred.

If the on-board power level
drops too far, the ship becomes

immobilised and your mission
ends.

PRESENTAT JOW 67%

| A good-looking game, let down
by inadequate and unhelpful

instructions:

GRAPHICS 72%

Sharp and functional through-
out- . .

SOUND 74%

Unusual soundtrack arid good
effects.

HOOKABIUTY 48%

The fiddly control can hardly bd
described as user friendly.

INSTABILITY 36%

The limited gameplay affords lit-
tle in the way of lasting chal-
lenge ... or even short-term
appeal. .

OVERALL 53%

An underdeveloped game,
which is more a test of dexterity
i than a form of entertainment.

THE WORLD'S No 1 HOME

COMPUTER SOFTWARE HOUSE

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ENTERTAINMENT SOFTWARE

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Developed from ‘Double Phantom’
on the BBC, as seen on ‘Micro Live’ TV

Runs on single or linked C64’s.

(Link cable voucher with program)

iadIvecc - When you buy ZtD disks for only & X d • / D*
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★ N.B. All disks are superior quality Fuji double density
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96 TPI CERTIFIED They include envelopes, hub rings, labels etc.

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* Quantity Prices
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200 -£85.00
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+ 10% for quad density
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when purchased with above

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96 ZZAP! 64 October 1 987

THE WORLDS FIRST FLIGHT SIMULATOR WITH

MULTI-USER

THE 10™ PERSONAL COMPUTER

WORLD SHOW

OLYM PI A

23-27 SEPTEMBER 1987

MAKE THE RIGHT CONNECTIONS

For the personal computer enthusiast
there's nowhere better to make the right
connections than the Personal Computer
World Show this September. It's
the biggest and most pres-
tigious event of its kind
held under one roof.

For the 10th year run-
ning the Personal Com-
puter World Show gives you the perfect
platform to take a close look at all the big
names in the industry. You can
also get to meet the pick of the
new companies striving to
make it into the mainstream.

The show has something for
everyone. Whether you're a
professional or an enthusiast,
you're certain to find all that's
first class in software, hardware
and peripherals at Olympia.

23-27 SEPTEMBER 1987
OLYMPIA LONDON

Sponsored by Personal Computer World

The Personal Computer World
Show will help you make all
the right PC connect-
ions. The dates are
23-27 September
(Business and trade
only days 23-24 Septem-
ber). Send for your ad-
vance tickets at £3.00 each (£2.50 for 10
or more) by phoning the Personal
Computer World Show '87 Keith Prowse
Ticket Office on 01-741 9999
with your credit card number.
Or send a cheque or postal
order to: Personal Computer
World Show '87, Keith Prowse
Ticket Office, PO Box 2,
London W6 0LQ.

Organised by Montbuild
Ltd, 11 Manchester Square,
London W1M 5AB.

*When ordering tickets by post, please enclose s.a.e.

F lying in the trail of the highly
successful Ace comes Ace 2,
a two-player head-to-head
air combat simulator played over a
Middle East scenario. Each player
takes control of a hi-tech jet and
attempts to shoot down a hostile
aircraft (either computer or human

controlled), using either cannon
fire or heat-seeking missiles.

The action is displayed in first-
person 3D, using a horizontally
split screen, with player one’s vie-
wpoint at the top and player two’s
below. A panel beneath each
screen shows the status of each
plane, and displays such informa-
tion as height, velocity, weapon,
pitch, roll and any incoming mes-

J Not being a real

fan of the more
complex flight
simulator, the
fact that Ace 2
allows the player to get
straight up in the air and start
blasting really appeals to me.
There’s a fabulous feeling of
speed and tension generated
from the start, and despite the
relative lack of options and
controls, the action still
demands constant and undi-
vided attention. The computer
opponent is a little fearsome (a
good deal of practice is
needed before a human player
can compete), but this game
only really comes into its own
when played head to head in
two-player mode. When
played among friends, Ace 2
provides fun, spectacle, col-
our and excitement - what
more could you want.

\ 'gw Ace 2 is certainly
no clone of its
|n^ predecessor

H gone are the mul-

tiple combat
scenarios of Ace, and indeed
gone are all the vital controls
of the plane itself. Page five of
the instructions manual
quotes a long list of things you
needn’t worry about while
flying your plane, including
flaps, rudder and various
aerobatic features. Unfortu-
nately, this is its main flaw -
the game is oversimplified to
the point where it begins to
lose some of its value. Combat
emulators rely on the feeling of
ordered chaos generated by
having to control a complex
machine, attack the enemy
and attempt to stay alive in the
process. All that remains for
you to do in Ace 2 is guide the
plane and press the fire but-
ton. This does provide a
albeit short-lived,

^ Lovely graphics in Ace 2 combined with realistic air-to-air combat

decent,

challenge against a human
opponent, but I’m rather
unsure about the difficulty
level of the computer - it starts
very hard on level one and gets
worse. Although this is a good
game in its own right, fans of
Ace could well be a bit disap-
pointed.

98 ZZAP! 64 October 1987

pilot ona
Ptnnas 03

SCOPS

0000000

PILOT TU0
PLnnSS 03
SCOPS
0000000

Cascade, £9.95 cass, £14.95 disk, joystick or keys

6xH«flT Qlft-OIR

Kxitaooit om-fli*

oftn-owouno — <

PltiPOfti POM TQKC OPP

COflPUTOR

PLPnas 10

LSVSL 20

pilot ona
Ptnnas 03
SCORG
0000000

PILOT TUO

PLnnas 03

0000000

This sequel to
Ace is something
of a disappoint-
ment. The origi-
nal was a prog-
ram with enormous depth,
incorporating features such as
air-to-air and air-to-ground or
sea combat, mid-air refuelling
and landing and taking off. By
comparison, Ace 2 is decidedly
simple, and is more of an
arcade game than anything
else. There are two basic
options - a dogfight scenario
or a mission scenario. The
dogfight situation is a
straightforward one-on-one
air combat, and is virtually the
same with the addition of each
pilot having a ground target to
attack or defend. The com-
puter provides a good oppo-
nent and should challenge
even the most experienced
pilot - that's if you can stick
the action long enough. After a
couple of sessions I found the
lack of depth and variety to be
Ace 2’s stumbling block.
Shooting down plane after
plane becomes a little tedious,
especially as there's nothing
else to do. Even the mission
scenario is quite limited -
there just isn't enough in the
action to keep you coming
back for more. The two-player
mode offers a lot of fun, but if
you’re likely to be playing Ace
2 solo, avoid it. Buy Ace instead
- it's a completely different
game.

radar-guided rockets or heat
seekers, which are limited to close
combat. Because of the rockets’
differing weights, the pilot has to
think about his approach before
arming - once in the air the chosen
arms cannot be changed.

The mission ends quite simply
when one player has lost all of his
planes.

PRESENTATION 90%

A useful series of options, and
well laid out screen.

GRAPHICS 78%

Great statics, complemented by
slightly simplistic, but fast and
colourful action.

SOUND 75%

A great Rob Hubbard tune kicks
off - only to be followed by
slightly annoying sound effects.

HOOkABILITY 80%

Very straightforward, offering
action from the start.

LASTABILITY 72%

Lone flyers may lose interest
relatively quickly. However, the
two player mode is still enjoy-
able.

OVERALL 81%

A disappointment after Ace, but
still enjoyable for budding com-
bat pilots.

Y ou find yourself a lonely
outcast, banished from
your Galaxy by invading
alien forces. However there is light
at the end of the tunnel - if you can
infiltrate the aggressor’s starbase
and destroy their headquarters,
your people will be released and
you will be free to return home.
This is a mission of honour . . .
and it could be your last.

The mission begins over the first

This latest offer-
ing from the Data
East/US Gold
relationship is a
bit on the poor
side. The ship control is
slightly clumsy - 1 would have
preferred a rotate left/rotate
right/forward control rather
than the 'point in the direction
that you want to go’ method
used here - and just to make
things even more difficult, the
collision detection tends to
favour the alien vessels.
Another drawback is that you
can destroy all of the ground
targets, only to die while
attacking the guardian
mothership - then, on restart-
ing, the alien's urban renewal
project has sprung into opera-
tion and all the previously
destroyed buildings and
installations are back in one
piece! Last Mission has all the
ingredients of an enjoyable
game, however it is sadly lack-
ing in refinement.

My initial impres-
sions of this
game weren’t
favourable,
mainly due to the
shoddy graphics and diaboli-
cal introductory sequence. To
make matters even worse, the
flat, bland backdrops are
awful, and the aimlessly flitting
sprites look really grotty. The
gameplay isn’t that bad
though, and that’s the most
important thing. Once you get
into it, the blasting action
becomes quite addictive, and I
found myself returning to it
quite a few times to see
whether I could get a little
further. The awkward presen-
tation and long wait between
games is incredibly annoying,
but otherwise the Last Mission
proves to be a mildly compel-
ling shoot 'em up.

alien landscape, scrolling beneath
your ship in eight directions. Guid-
ing your ship across the region’s
16 sectors, you destroy as many
of the land-based targets and
attack craft as possible.

A fleet of four ships is made
available to complete the mission,
and these explode on contact with
enemy fire, ships or installations.

The ship is equipped with state
of the art weaponry - including five
smart bombs - and picks up extra
armament from the remains of
ground targets which have been
destroyed. A round token appears

Before the mission begins, you’re treated to a glimpse of the Guardian
Mothership which must be defeated at the end of each level

The program-

ming house
involved with this
conversion
should be sharply
rapped across the knuckles,
as they obviously have no idea
of presentation. At the start of
each game a long introduction
has to be endured before the
action begins, and another
tong end piece and a very
clumsy high-score table are
the penalty for finishing the
mission. It would be nice if you
could have the option to skip
this awful rigmarole every
time. The graphics lack crisp-
ness and definition and there
are some annoying quirks in
the gameplay which rankle
and ultimately spoil the limited
fun that’s on offer. If you're
after a shoot 'em up, shop
around - the market is full of
them and there are plenty bet-
ter than this.

bearing a letter corresponding to
the item of equipment carried -
crossing this installs the hardware
onto the craft. Each item lasts for a
specific amount of time, indicated
by a small bar timer below the main
screen.

A scanner is displayed at the
bottom of the screen showing the
remaining ground units. Alongside
is a decreasing energy bar which
signals the damage inflicted on the
enemy forces. When this has com-
pletely disappeared the guardian
mothership enters - the destruc-
tion of which allows access to the
next landscape.

ZZAP! 64 October 1 987 99

AsK

ALL

TRADE

PRICES

YOUR MICRO

DESERVES THE BEST. .

When your home or business micro costs several hundreds of
pounds, it deserves the finest repair facilities in Europe (well,
probably!). And the finest prices - £5 off trade rates for a limited
period only. ★ How? At Verran we use our own range of advanced
automatic test equipment (now sold worldwide), backed by
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prices and, most important, guaranteed reliability. For the first
three months we’ll repair any fault free. For the next three, at half
these quoted prices. ★ It’s the finest service available.

* Currently we handle over 3500 products on average every day.
Providing services for such leading companies as Amstrad pic,
Commodore Business Machines, Sinclair Research, Rank Xerox,
Dixons, Currys, Boots, W H Smiths, John Menzies and many more.

★ Join them and take up our special offer now.

d&y k

<*?-

Recommended and Approved by

AMSTRAD AIARI COMMODORE

ACORN SINCLAIR

<¥•

EUROPE’S LEADING

COMPUTER REPAIR CENTRE

...AND UNBEATABLE DISCOUNTS ON ALL COMPONENTS!!!

^ With over £500,000 worth of spares in stock, we
can meet many of your specialised requirements.
We've listed a few examples and for anything not
displayed just call us and well quote immediately
inclusive of first class post

Keyboard Membrane

Spectrum
Spectrum Plus
Metal Templates

3.00

8.00
3.00

Power Supplies

C64

C16

COMMODORE SPARES

SPECTRUM SPARES

Z80 CPU
ULA 6C001
Power Supply
ROM

4116 RAMS
ZTX 690
ZTX213

2.50
7.00

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.75

.40

6510 Processor
6525 CIA
6581 Sid Chip
901225 Graphic ROM
901226 Basic ROM
901227 Kernal ROM
906114 House Keeper
6569 - VIC

4164 RAMS - Memory

12.00

15.00

10.00
10.00

15.00

10.00
18.00

1.00

All the above prices include VAT but please enclose
a further £1.50 post and packing on all component
orders.

HOW TO CONTACT US
'A' For quotes on computers not listed or on
any component telephone 0276 66266.

(Quoting ZAP/107).

★ To send us your micro for repair, mail it securely
packed, accompanied by cheque, postal order
(made out to Verran Micro Maintenance Limited) or
quote your Access or Barclaycard number. And to
obtain your special discount quote ZAP/107 .

T erran

Verran Micro-Maintenance Limited, Unit 2H & 2J, Albany Park, Frimley
Road, Camberley, Surrey GU15 2PL. Telephone 0276 66266.

MW*

mi&W*

: «J?S

">fl

HAVE YOU GOT WHAT IT

A complex and deeply
developed strategy game
brought together to generate
the battleground of the
future. HYBRID is a
combination of superb
graphics and original
techniques to emulate those
fevered imaginations
hitherto found only in
nightmares. HYBRID
challenges your ability to
master this superior space
adventure. The superb detail
and engrossing strategy is a
feast for the imagination.

C64/128 cass £9.99 064/128
di<ik £12.99 AMSTRAD cass
£9.99 AMSTRAD disk
£14.99 SPECTRUM £8.99

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’ • | 33 V $1 V\v.>_ } ’ , ; * 1 *^ . V'

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No 4 August 1985
No 5 September 1985
No 8 December 1985
No 10 February 1986

116 Pages! Bounder AND Eidolon Gold Medals!
TWO Sizzlers! Fight Night! Revs! Deus ExMachina!
Tony Crowther and Martin Galway Interviewed ! SIX
Pages of Tips, including . . . Dynamite Dan Map!
Underwurlde Map Part II! Incredible Pictures In The
Compunet Art Gallery! Shadowspiel! Lucasfilm
Interview Part I! Terminal Man! And More!

BACKNUMBERS

ZZAP! back to the past, and pick up the copies you missed of your favourite
Commodore magazine. There’s something here for everyone - from connois-
seur to casual consumer. Here's a quick look to whet your appetite . . .

No 12 April 1986

116 Pages! ‘Julian RignalT On The Cover! THREE
Sizzlers! Zoids! Biggies Preview! Game Killer! Prog-
rammer’s Egos Abound - ZZAP! Superstar Chal-
lenge! FIVE Pages Of Tips! First Four Levels Of The
Eidolon Mapped! 1985 ZZAP! Readers Awards
Results! Mindsmear Preview! Wild Sounds From
Your 64 - Datel Digidrum AND Sound Sampler
Reviewed! ZZAPBACK! Shadowspiel! More Fabul-
ous Compunet Art! Terminal Man! And More!

No 13 May 1986

116 Pages! Alter Ego Gold Medal! TWO Sizzlers!
Thrust! Super Bowl! Picture Of The Gorgeous Claire
Hirsch! The Daily Llama - Diary Of A Minter!
infocom Interview Part I! ZZAP In-House Challenge
Guest Starring Jeff Minter! SEVEN Pages Of Tips!
Chimera AND Bounder Maps! Palace Software Pre-
views' Shadowspiel! Mindsmear Confession! ZZAP-
BACK 11 Imagine Interview! Index For Issues 1-12!
Terminal Man 1 And More! More! More!

tmmm.

No 14 June 1986

124 Pages! Spindizzy Gold Medal! SIX Sizzlers!
International Karate! Cauldron II! Starquake!
Spellbound! ZZAPTIONNAIRE Results! Infocom
Interview Part II! Steve Evans Interview! EIGHT
Pages Of Tips! Doomdark's Revenge Map! LastFour
Levels Of The Eidolon Mapped! Shadowspiel! Gary
Liddon’s Technical Bit In The Middle! ZZAPBACK!!
Terminal Man! And More!

No 15 July 1986

124 Pages! Leader Board Gold Medal! FOUR
Sizzlers! Boulderdash III! Slamball! Go For Gold!
Sentinel! Budget Reviews Bonanza! Penn Wins
Challenge! Euromax’s Mouse And Cheese! SIX
Pages Of Tips! Starquake Map! More Outstanding
Compunet Art! Daily Llama - Minter Diary! Gary
Liddon’s Technical Bit In The Middle! Shadowspiel!
CRL Previews! Terminal Man! And More!

No 16 August 1986

116 Pages! FOUR Sizzlers! Green Beret! Tau Ceti!
Infiltrator! Kik Start II! Controversial Musician's Ball
Interview! Vidcom Art Package Reviewed! Daily
Llama - Minter Diary ! NINE Pages Of Tips ! Cauldron
II Map! Hacker Map! Mercenary Map AND Tips!
ZZAPBACK! Terminal Man - Final Episode! And
Even More!

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No 17 September 1986

124 Pages! Roger Kean Leaves! TWO Gold Medals!
Ghosts ’n’ Goblins! Graphic Adventure Creator!
FIVE Sensuous Siz2lers! Knight Games! Arac! The
Second City! Hercules! Split Personalities ! The
Musician’s Other Ball - Commodore's Music Expan-
sion System Reviewed! Daily Llama — Conclusion Of
The Minter Dairy! SEVEN Pages Of Tips! Ark Pan-
dora Map AND Solution! RMS Titanic Map! Mas-
terblaster III! Software Cuties Special! Uchi Mata
Preview! ZZAPSTICK! Chris Butler Interviewed!
ZZAPBACK! And More!

No 18 October 1986

116 Pages! Gary Penn Takes Over! FIVE Sizzlers!
Beyond The Forbidden Forest! Powerplay! Parallax!
Iridis Alpha! Super Cycle! Two Readers Battle In
The Challenge! Greg Barnett Interviewed! NINE
Pages Of Titilating Tips! Tau Ceti Map AND Tips!
Second City Map AND Tips! And More! More! More!

No 19 November 1986

148 Pages! World Games Gold Medal! FIVE Sizzlers!
Dan Dare! Sanxion! Tass Times in Tone Town! Tri-
vial Pursuit! Delta Four Interview! ZZAPSTICK! TEN
Pages Of Tips! Miami Vice Map! First Four Levels Of
Equinox Mapped! Robin Of The Wood Map! John
Twiddy Interview! ZZAPBACK! And (Believe It Or
Not) MORE!

No 20 December 1986

180 Pages! TWO Gold Medals! The Sentinel! Boul-
derdash Construction Kit! FIVE Sizzlers! Sacred
Armour Of Antiriad! Leather Goddesses Of Phobos!
Bobby Bearing! The Pawn! Trailblazer! Firebird’s
Fabulous Microrhythm Drum Kit Reviewed!
TWELVE Pages Of Tips! Jack The Nipper Map!
Zoids Map ! Dan Dare Map ! Antiriad Map ! And More !
More! More!

No 21 Christmas Special 1986/87

196 Pages! ONE Sizzler! The Bard’s Tale! The ZZAP!
Lads! Denton Designs Revisited! Desert Island
5Ws! Rockford’s Round-Up! Tamara Knight - Part
One! Newsfield Reviewer's Challenge! Masterblas-
ter IV ! ELEVEN Pages Of Thrilling Tips ! Glider Rider
Map! Druid Map! Hacker II Map! Infiltrator Tips
AND Maps! Fabulous Pull-Out 1987 Calendar! Com-
punet - Partyline Parody! More Glorious Binary Pic-
tures In The Art Gallery! ZZAP! Scrapbook! Page
202! And More!

No 22 February 1987

132 Pages! Over FIFTY Pages of Reviews! FIVE
Sizzlers! Gauntlet! Moonmist! Escape From Singe’s
Castle! They Stole A Million! SEVEN Pages Of Tips!
Flash Gordon Map! Last Four Levels Of Equinox
Mapped! Mercenary: The Second City — THE Cheat!
Infodroid Map! Kele-Line Profile! And Much Much
More!

No 23 March 1987

116 Pages! TWO Sizzlers! Mutants! Brian Clough’s
Football Fortunes! TWO Powerful Pages Of Hard-
Hitting Editorial! Portal’ Re view'! Sensible Software
Interviewed! TWELVE Pages Of Tips! Camelot War-
riors Map! Firelord Map! Avenger Map! Fist II Map!
Dante’s Inferno Map! 1986 ZZAP! Reader’s Awards
Results! The Andrew Braybrook Diary - Mental
Procreation Part One! And (Gasp) MORE!

No 24 April 1987

116 Pages ! ONE Sizzler ! Gunship ! SIX Pages of Coin-
Op Reviews! ELEVEN Pages Of Tips! Tarzan Map!
DIY 3D Escape From Singe’s Castle Map! Nosferatu
Map! Aliens Map! Future Knight Map - Part One!
Jarratt Joins! And A Whole Lot More!

No 25 May 1987

116 Pages! An Almost Full-Colour Issue! TWO
Sizzlers! Into The Eagle’s Nest! Hollywood Hijinx!
PLUS! Ranarama! Nemesis! Shockway Rider! POD!
Sailing! Crucial Compilations Comparison! SIX
Pages Of Tips! Future Knight Map - Part Two! Fan-
tastic Oli Frey Pull-Out Poster! Impossible Mission
Past Blaster! Stifflip And Co Preview! Terminal Man
II Prologue! Index For Issues 13-24! And (Surprise
Surprise) Even More!

No 26 June 1987

100 Pages PLUS SAMPLER CASSETTE! TWO
Sizzlers! Zenji! Zolyx! Zzapback! SEVEN Pages Of
Tips! Maps Of Aliens! Bobby Bearing! Feud! The
Terminal Man II - Episode One ! A Hitchhikers Guide
To Douglas Adams! Oink’s Curly Tale! And Many
Many More!

No 27 July 1987

116 Pages! THREE SIZZLERS! Wizball! World Class
Leaderboard! Bureaucracy! SIX Pages Of Tips!
Maps Of Heartland! The Great Escape! Arcades
Analysed! Philippa Irving's Manoeuvres — The
Beginning! The Nintendo Console! American Foot-
ball Round-Up! Dare We Say More!

No 28 August 1987

116 Pages! Penn Leaves! ONE Gold Medal! Head
Over Heels! THREE Sizzlers! The Last Ninja! Lurk-
ing Horror! Defender Of The Crown! EIGHT Pages
Of Tips! Maps Of The Curse Of Sherwood! Vampire!
Auf Wiedersehen Monty! Ranarama! Behind The
Scenes Of The Living Daylights! The Mini Office II!
Microrhythm Plus! The Zzaptionnaire Results!
ZZAP! 16 - The C16 Scrutinised! The Return Of Gary
Liddon! Who Could Ask For More!

No 29 September 1987

124 Pages! Brennan Begins! ONE Gold Medal!
California Games! FOUR Sizzlers! Re-Bounder! Star
Paws! Zynaps! Guild Of Thieves! EIGHT Pages Of
Tips! Head Over Heels And The Last Ninja Mapped!
The Sega Console! Binary Vision Say Their Piece!
The End Of Tamara Knight! Zzapback! Raster Inter-
rupts De-Mystified! And A Great Deed More!

......

8Bt§8

llii'

Pirates! The world’s first s

^-3(^5 X^wpaction and
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on (be Spanish Main during
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name. \

l eap into this era hf
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Raid treasure- laden
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ports . Learn to navigate, to
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I n iquely Pirates! : Wf
combines the exeiteniefit op
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negotiate the greatest profits.
j Success will determine
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L Pirates 9 wilt be landing in

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Iff

|. 'Is.

BUDGET TEST

ZZAPI’s monthly round-up of budget software

Recent months have seen a huge increase in the volume of new
budget releases entering the market. This new ZZAP! feature is
designed to keep you up to date on these releases, and give a short
summary of the quality of software available at the cheaper end of
the market. This month, Julian Rignall casts his beady eye at the
latest on the budget scene.

AZTEC CHALLENGE

Top Ten, £1.99

In this, one of US Gold’s first ever
games, the player assumes the
role of an Aztec who has just been
chosen for a human sacrifice. His
only chance of survival is to
escape by enduring a series of
seven survival tests.

Each of the tests takes the form
of a separate game, and long and
difficult they are too! Dodging
spears, leaping over pools and
negotiating traps are all part and
parcel of this survival romp
through ancient South America.
The graphics and animation are
laughably bad, but Azfec
Challenge is oddly enjoyable -
mostly due to the silly plot and
addictive gameplay!

OVERALL 72%

BOULDERDASH/
BOULDERDASH II

Prism, £2.99

The evergreen

Boulderdash games
have been a firm
favourite ever since the
first release some three
years ago, and their star,
Rockford, has made regular

appearances on these hallowed
pages ever since. Now Prism has
re-released the first two games in
the series at a budget price.

Rockford’s task sees him travel
through a series of boulder-filled
caves collecting diamonds - a
dangerous task which involves
solving fiendish puzzles and
avoiding the cave’s denizens.

Both Boulderdash I and II offer
incredible addiction and
playability which are unequalled in
this range of the market. Go out
and buy these two marvellous
classics NOW!

OVERALL 96%

CLEAN-UP SERVICE

Players, £1 .99

Those whacky pair of cleaners,
Bobban and Otto are back again
to create havoc on your
Commodore. Their cleaning firm,
Clean-Up Service, has just been
assigned the task of keeping
Addle Hotel spotless - a cue for a
game if ever I saw one!

One or two players can play,
guiding the heroes around a series
of platform screens and clearing
lumps of dirt as they go. Mutant
rubbish gives chase - irradiating
the two cleaners if not destroyed.

The action is pretty frenetic, and
is almost overwhelming in single

Looks like Rockford got trapped on his way back from the margin to
superstardom

<m. m- ■* *

r * * *

♦ * *■

Sfc ** *■■

* * *
S* *

* *

Lis

Bobban snoozes as Otto cleans up Addle hotel

player mode. The two player
option has plenty of scope for
laughs, and great graphics and
sound provide the finishing
touches to this pleasurable
platform game.

OVERALL 80%

COSMONUT

Code Masters, £1.99

‘Five amazing games in one’
boasts the cassette inlay . . . but
‘Five amazingly average screens
in one’ would be a little more
appropriate. Cosmonut puts you
in control of a little spaceman who
has entered the maze-like head of
an enormous robot. The mission is
to destroy it by draining its power,
a task requiring the completion of
a series of three sub-games. When
all are completed, the spaceman
meets the robot for a final
confrontation.

The graphics are very bland and
sound Isn’t anything special. If a
little more thought had been put
into the sub-games Cosmonut
could have been fun, but the three
games bear little repetition and
quickly become predictable and
dull.

OVERALL 46%

BEMH RACE

Atlantis, £1 .99

Now here’s a chance to reminisce,
with this somewhat poor version
of the eight year old racing game,
Turbo.

The objective is to race along a
straight road, attempting to
overtake 70 cars within an 80
second time limit. Contact with
other racers proves fatal, with the
race ending after three crashes. If
80 cars are passed before the limit
expires, a bonus is awarded and
the race continues along a more
congested road.

The archaic gameplay, graphics
and sound provide an element of
fun (mostly at the programmers
expense), but the repetitive racing
quickly bores.

OVERALL 40%

Jim and Bob are the names of an
unlikely pair of robots who’ve just
volunteered to rescue a Princess.
One or two players participate,
guiding the intrepid duo over a
series of horizontally scrolling
landscapes.

The screen scrolls at a constant
speed as the robots climb and
jump - consequently, slowing
down and allowing the scrolling to
catch up results in their
destruction. Life removing aliens
roam the landscape, making the
task just that little bit harder.

The robot’s plodding pace
tends to make the game
frustrating, and consequently
there’s very little instant reward.
Deliverance could well give
amusement on a rainy Sunday
afternoon, but otherwise . . .

OVERALL 43%

DESTRUCTO

Bulldog, £1 .99

The evil Dr Destructo is building a
fleet of ships, and is about to sally
forth and conquer the world. Luck-
ily for us the airforce have got wind
of his plans and are sending a fleet
of planes to destroy the ships
before they embark.

One or two players fly their craft

over the ships, shooting down as
many of the defending planes as
possible. Shooting a defender
causes it to crash down to the
ship’s surface - damaging the hull
on contact. Cause enough dam-
age and the ship sinks, allowing
the player to progress to the next
vessel.

Although the action is repetitive,
it’s absurd enough to be enjoyable
- especially with two players.

OVERALL 61%

► A pitched battle ensues over one of Dr Destructo’s ships

► The eliminator wends his weary way deeper into the dungeons

For some strange reason, this is
very reminiscent of the arcade
game Trojan ... yet it plays
nothing like it. The player takes the
role of a robot who enters a series
of scrolling underground caverns
to dispose of all the denizens. The
mission starts out easy, but soon

gets pretty tough as the deeper
caverns are reached.

The Enforcer is by no means a
classic, but it looks good, is
addictive and offers plenty of
scope for long-lasting play. The
main sprite and some of the caves
are nicely drawn, although the
hostiles are a bit of a let-down in
this department. At two quid it’s a
good buy, and there’s even a free
audio track on the ‘B’ side!

OVERALL 74%

. PR|SlfiT|itiO?j 32%

Great title screen and plenty of
options.

G|APHICS74%

hairly basic - but then so were
the originals!

JqUPID 32%
l he Soundtrack’s superb,
although some of the more famil-
iar effects are missing.

!1 0 0XA3 IU7Y 93%
Simplicity was (and is) the name
of the game.

1ASTARIUTY 33% .

Each game presents a chal-
lenge.

over#Ill 00%

Great entei tainmont.

T hose of you who have a sec-
ret yearning for the good old
days of 1 0p arcade
machines and simple, two colour
games need look no further than
Arcade Classics from Firebird
Silver, which includes versions of
the old favourites, Space Invaders,
Asteroids, Snakes and Space
Wars.

Space Invaders is practically a
pixel for pixel copy of the arcade
version, retaining all the features
of the original.

Asteroids is also faithfully repr-
esented, complete with pseudo
vector graphic rocks and
spaceship. Your vessel is directed
by rotate and thrust commands
and to progress from level to level,
you must destroy all the rocks and
asteroids on each screen.

Snakes is a two-player only
game where the aim is to kill your

When I first heard
that Firebird were
going to release
an arcade collec-
tion, I thought it
was a great idea and awaited
the outcome with interest. I’m
not disappointed. The conver-
sions aren’t perfect, but
they’re still fun to play - and at
50p a throw they’re certainly
far from disastrous. It’s a pity
that Snakes and Space Wars
are two-player only, but if you
can get hold of friend then
these are truly Arcade Classics.

opponent’s snake by causing him
to collide head-on with the body of
your own. The aim is to trap your
opponent as many times as possi-
ble within an adjustable time limit.

Last but not least is Space Wars,
another two-player only game, the
aim being to destroy your oppo-
nent by blasting him with your
front-mounted lasers. Both ves-
sels are constantly under the influ-
ence of the gravitational pull of a
central sun, the strength of which
may be set prior to play.

There’s masses
and masses of
playability con-
tained in Arcade
Classics, with
each of the four games being a
good blast in its own right. Add
the four together and throw in
a powerful soundtrack, and
you come out with one of the
best budget releases in ages.
The fact that a couple of the
games are two player
doesn’t detract at all from
sheer fun generated by
whole package. This is one
everyone’s collection.

ZZAP! 64 October 1 987 1 07

MAIL

£1

OFF ANY OF THESE

GREAT GAMES!

READERS’
SPECIAL DISCOUNT

OFFERS

Normal retail prices are
quoted, just knock off the
discount on the form below

PLEASE NOTE: This offer is only subject to the
discounts detailed above, no others will be
accepted (such as Subscribers’ extra discounts,
or the normal ZZAP! Mail Order bulk buying dis-
counts). Ail the above were reviewed in Issues 29
and 30 of ZZAPI, most are already available; we
will despatch orders as soon as possible but you
may have to wait longer than normal for those
games which haven't yet been released.

HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!

ACE II (Cascade) £9.95
BLACK MAGIC (US Gold) £9.99
HYSTERIA (Software Projects) £9.95

AND THEN THERE'S . . ■

THE TUBE (Quicksilva) £8.95
CALIFORNIA GAMES (US Gold) £9.99
ZYNAPS (Hewson) £8.95
PROHIBITION (Infogrames) £9.95
NIGHT ON THE TILES (Firebird) £7.99
GAME OVER (Imagine) £8.95
BLITZKRIEG (Ariolasoft) £9.99
LAST MISSION (US Gold) £9.99
CENTURIONS (Reaktor) £9.99
FLUNKY (Piranha) £9.95
THE ARMAGEDDON MAN (Martech) £12.95
ROAD RUNNER (US Gold) £9.99
PILE-UP (Reaktor) £7.95

PIRATES OF THE BARBARY COAST (Cascade) £9.95
RE-BOUNDER (Gremlin Graphics) £9.99
DECEPTOR (US Gold) £9.99
STREET SPORTS BASEBALL (US Gold) £9.99
STAR PAWS (Software Projects) £5.95
THE LIVING DAYLIGHTS (Domark) £9.95
PIRATES! (Microprose) £14.95
DEATHWISH III (Gremlin Graphics) £9.99

SPECIAL DISCOUNT OFFER

I would like to order the following game(s) and understand that I may
deduct £1 off the quoted price for any single order, or £3 off any pair of
games ordered (for example, I can deduct £4 from the total prices of three
games, or £6 from four games). I’ve listed them below, and enclose a
cheque or postal order made payable to NEWSFIELD LIMITED.

Name ...
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OPPORTUNITY KNOCKS

Expansion in an exciting industry.

Continuing success and growth in home computer software creates further
positions for personnel in program writing, development and management.

Ocean group markets software worldwide offering the most extensive
publication of computer programs and producing maximum sales revenues.

HOW RICH DO YOU WANT TO BE?

You’ve probably heard a lot of claims and promises from software
companies concerning paymentfor program code or design work but the fact is
reward depends upon success and by linking into success you will achieve your
maximum potential whichever way you choose to be paid.

If you have talent and dedication then Ocean with its resources and
international connections will bring the fame and fortune you deserve.

HAVE YOU GOT WHAT IT TAKES?

We are looking for people to work in the fields of game design, graphic
animation, program coding and related skills either directly as in-house
personnel or on a freelance basis. Training and support will be offered;
everything from equipment to friendly advice — we want to help you do a better
job for both of us.

We are also looking to market finished software and will offer to translate
original programsto every relevant microformat in orderto increase the potential
revenues to the creator.

We work and publish in both 8 bit and 1 6 bit environments worldwide and no
project is too large or too small for our consideration.

DON’T MISS THE BOAT

Product Acquisition and Development,

Ocean Software Limited,

6 Central Street,

Manchester.

M2 5NS.

Telephone - 061-8326633
Fax - 061-834 0650
Telex - 669977 OCEANS G.

FORBIDDEN FOREST

Top Ten, £1.99

This ageing US Gold classic has
just been given a new lease of life
courtesy of the new Top Ten
budget label.

The player takes the role of an
heroic archer, entering the realm
of the Forbidden Forest to do bat-
tle with the evil Demogorgon who
reigns supreme. Before this monu-
mental showdown, the Demogor-
gon’s minions have to be
despatched - these terrors
include giant frogs, snakes, skele-
tons and spiders.

The graphics are unbelievably
blocky, but the gameplay is
superb - full of blood, guts and
gore. A superb soundtrack belts
along as the archer cleaves a path
through the forest, adding greatly
to the atmosphere. This is
definitely a classic - not to be
missed.

OVERALL 82%

FRENESIS

Mastertronic, £1 .99

One thing that can be said about
Frenesis is that it’s highly original.
However, playability doesn’t
always go hand-in-hand with new
ideas - a fact that is well illustrated
here.

The idea is to take control of four
bars - two horizontal and two ver-
tical - and to guide them over the
swarming aliens. Destroying a set
number within a limited time
allows progress to the next, faster
screen. The first couple of levels
are quite easy, but survival
becomes increasingly difficult as
later levels are reached.

The action is very colourful, but
the gameplay is confused and ulti-
mately repetitive. A nice idea
which didn’t quite make it.

OVERALL 43%

J- [W

ni A'k'h

Bug Byte, £2.99

Bug Byte certainly have some gall!
They’ve freeze-framed the original
multi-load disk version of Alice to
tape, mastered it, and are now sel-
ling the result for three quid. This
sounds fine, but there is a major
drawback which isn’t immediately
apparent . . .

All runs well until the end of the
first level is reached, whereupon
the program tries to access the
next level from disk. It doesn’t
realise the program has loaded
from cassette, and tries again to
access the non-existent disk. After
a few seconds, the 64 gives up and
resets itself in confusion.

The first level is unbelievably

simple - just guide Alice along a
very badly drawn horizontally
scrolling path, avoiding inept flying
creatures until you reach the end.
The occasional floating door
causes trouble, but otherwise it’s
plain sailing for our cute heroine.
Basically there’s about four
minutes of this tedious play on
offer before the machine turns
itself off - which thankfully saves
us the bother.

Three pounds? No way Jose!

OVERALL 3%

TOAD FORCE

Players, £1.99

It has been decided that the most
advanced defence system in the
universe has to be destroyed, and
you, a bio-mechanical fighting
toad, has been enlisted for the
task.

The defence network is spread
across five levels of scrolling
landscape, and is heavily guarded
by all manner of vile creatures. The
jet-packed toad starts on the
planet surface and travels
downwards, destroying all in his
path. Extra supplies are picked up
along the way to the central
system to keep the toad alive and
the jet-pack working.

The game is extremely well
presented, with a sub-game to
play while the program loads, an
attract mode and a great high-
score table. The backdrops are
simply gorgeous, with superb use
of colour, and the sound works
extremely well.

Getting to grips with the control
is tricky, and consequently games
can be short and numerous, but
practice reaps its own rewards
and mastering Toad Force proves
to be highly satisfying.

OVERALL 83%

GUN RUNNER

The Power House, £1 .99

This Choplifter variant sees you
patrolling a horizontally scrolling
landscape in your chopper. Every
so often a helpless human appears
and is picked up by flying as low as
possible and lowering a winch.
When the required amount of
people have been rescued, the
player progresses to the next,
more difficult level. Throughout
the mission, kamikaze alien craft
fly in and try to destroy the
helicopter, but the chopper’s
machine guns and three smart
bombs can take them out.

The action is fast and furious,
but there’s not a lot to keep a
player toggling his joystick. The
parallax scrolling is extremely
pretty, and the graphics and
sound are generally good - it’s just
the gameplay that’s lacking.

OVERALL 60%

a • ■

BUDGET TEST

1 1 0 ZZAP! 64 October 1 987

Watching the hideously coloured Forbidden Forest backgrounds can
sometimes prove to be the game’s toughest challenge

A one-toad fighting force penetrates the defences of the evil planet

Frenesis is original and colourful - but not particularly playable
An inept Gun Runner crashes his chopper

ir -i ■/-'■• n . '-1.1 ~ ’ii &ait !‘ •t~*n*frnf‘H

ppliS 1

► Running the gauntlet of a fiery tunnel in Lazer Force

nnnnrn

uuutnu

A Starforce Nova’s scrolling becomes a blur as the ship accelerates

Poor old Dr Jackie has just gulped
a transforming potion made by his
enemy Dr Piqued, and become Mr
Wide, a bloated fatty who makes
Gary Liddon look like Twiggy. Not
being terribly happy with this
situation, the great fool is now
wobbling around in search of an
antidote. The cure to his obesity is
located in Dr Piqued’s secret lab,
and the hunt for his place of
experimentation forms the plot.

The search is carried out in two
parts - a vertically scrolling
journey through Hyde Park, and
the negotiation of the London
Sewers, where the evil Doctor’s
lab resides.

There are plenty of puzzles and
problems to overcome, but the
gameplay isn’t at all rewarding or
addictive. The graphics are very
ugly, with flickering sprites and
gaudy backdrops, and the action
quickly becomes tiresome.

OVERALL 29%

LAZER FORCE

Code Masters, £1 .99

Who on Earth writes the inlays for
Code Masters, and how do they
get away with it? ‘A new arcade
shoot ’em up which stretches the
64 to its limits’ is the claim made
on this one - and colourful it might
be, but there’s no way the 64 is at
all stretched.

There are four highly derivative

T Is it a plane? Is it a car? -No, it’s

Morphicle!

levels to blast through. The first is
a vertically scrolling hazard-filled
tunnel, next comes a screen from
Centipede , then a refuelling stage
exactly like the one in Moon Cresta
and finally there’s a journey up a
vertically scrolling road, just like
that in the ancient Mastertronic
game, BMX Racers.

Each of the four levels is finished
with ease, and the action becomes
repetitious very quickly thereafter.
There are plenty of better shoot
’em ups around offering far more
addiction and variety.

OVERALL 32%

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MORPHICLE THE
TRANSFORMING
CAR

The Power House, £1.99

A bomb is steadily ticking away
and you have been volunteered to
defuse it. The mission starts in a
fabulous transformer car, zooming
along over a horizontally scrolling
landscape. The road has to be fol-
lowed carefully, otherwise the car
crashes and the mission ends.
Occasionally a roadblock is
encountered, but a press of the fire
button transforms the car into a
flying machine, and it zooms over
the obstacle with ease.

The next stage involves the
negotiation of a tricky maze, and
finally a superbly drawn floating
slide puzzle is put together before
the bomb is finally made safe.

The first two levels are pretty
poor, and at times so obscure that
they’re almost too frustrating to
persevere with. However, the final
level is superb - it’s a shame that
more couldn’t have been made of
it. Morphicle is an enjoyable diver-
sion, but not one to put at the top
of your shopping list.

OVERALL 58%

The survivors of an alien attack on
Earth are being evacuated and
taken to safety in a giant Space
Ark. However, this trip involves
travelling through the F
Dimension, an uncharted area of
space where alien attackers lay in
wait.

The player defends the Ark by
flying over the long, horizontally
scrolling craft shooting down any
attackers. After two sweeps letters
appear and are shot for a bonus
score. After that the action starts
again with an even more hostile
force to contend with.

The gameplay is loosely based
on Uridium, and provides some
fun as you fly over the craft. A
decent soundtrack adds urgency,
but in the end the action wears a
little thin. There are plenty of other
shoot ’em ups to try before this
one.

OVERALL 52%

ZZAP! 64 October 1987 111

W\ b ZSjr, Superb stuff! The
third chapter of
the Camels series
follows on per-
fectly from its
predecessors. The individual
graphics are occasionally eye-
wrenching, but are always
extremely clever, they also
contain some great humour.
The gameplay echoes Revenge
I, but it's much better, with a
new ‘weapons select* system,
more powerful firepower and
a much improved control
method. The sound is also
great, and lends a great
atmosphere to the action.
Minter has certainly come up
with the goods again - and at a
price that everyone can afford.

Unused to to the rigours and
tactics of warfare, Earth’s only
hope is to initiate the genetically
mutated beasts created by the
ancients over 6000 years ago.
These animals, specifically the
mutant camels, were last used in
combat against the Zzyaxian
aggressors when they saved the
Earth from defeat. The signal for
their reactivation has been sent
and once more the fate of the Earth
lies in their hooves.

Taking direct control of one
such creature, your mission takes
place on the planet Zzyax, where
there are 1 00 horizontally scrolling
attack waves waiting to be con-
fronted.

The camel fires continuously
while the joystick button is held

\^>J As happens with
-A. most of mister
m ’jhbi Minter’s games, I
find it harder to
relate to a camel
than to a spaceship or futuris-
tic vessel of some kind. Having
said all that, I’m sure that the
86 billion Minter fans will run
out and buy it nonetheless -
and they’ll enjoy it too, as this
is a typical Minter product, full
of inspired characters and
more than slightly off the wall
gameplay. There’s not a lot on
offer for square system-dwell-
ers though.

down, and pushing up on the joys-
tick launches the mutant Dromed-
ary into the air where it can then
launch bombs onto the Zzyaxians
below.

At the end of a wave, new
weapons may be ‘bought’ by
accessing the weapons selection
mode. Placing the cursor circle
over a previously attempted
square and pressing the fire button
accesses the the equipment list
where, depending on the amount
of credits earned, different
weapons and shields may be
purchased.

Initially, five mutant camels are
available, and extra beasts may
also be purchased later on.

A fter centuries of peace, the
people of Earth are once
again about to be thrown
into battle following the re-
emergence of the evil Zzyaxian
Empire, which has plans to attack
the Terrans’ homeworld.

The plants in question are
scattered throughout the
horizontally scrolling swamp,
which you traverse in an inflatable
dingy. Energy draining mutant
animals attack throughout,
causing you to call up a gun as
your only means of defence.

Swamp Fever offers nothing
special, but it’s playable and
entertaining enough for the
money.

OVERALL 54%

Somewhere in Florida, nuclear
waste has leaked from an
underground dump and caused
mutant plants to grow. Desperate
scientists have now asked you to
enter the irradiated swamp and
pick the plants so that they can
experiment on them.

1 1 2 ZZAP! 64 October 1 987

PRE|ENTATiC|W 80%

Good documentation and pleas-
ant on-screen appearance.

GRAPHICS 80%

Large, colour fill and typically
Mintorosque.

S OU N D 70%

A gentle title tune contrasts with
the games awesome
cacophony.

MOOXAOIU I Y 89%

Although the action is strange -
it’s easy to get into.

l AS rAOlU iY 79%

100 different waves to negotiate
and plenty of blasting action.

Another Minter classic which
show’s that there’s still life in the
horizontally shoot ’em up theme

SWAMP FEVER

Players, £1 .99

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You are one of the elite . . . parachuting alone behind enemy
lines.The enemy controls the terrain, hidden in bunkers and
machine gun nests . . .you may be surrounded. The action is
fierce as you control one soldier’s battle against over-
whelming odds. You’ll need skill and strategy to out-
manoeuvre your enemy, plus courage and some luck to
make your escape. Airborne Ranger is an exciting fast-
paced simulation with 12 desperate missions in 3 different
regions of the world. The possibilities are endless!

AIRBORNE RANGER. Achallenging combination of danger
and suspense. Available for the Commodore 64/128K.
Cassette £14.95 Disk £19.95 .

PROSE

Please send copy/ies of Airborne Ranger CBM 64/128 □ Cassette £14.95 □ Disk £19.95 □ Further details.

Name (block capitals) Address.

Post Code

I enclose £.

or debit my Access/Visa card. Expiry date

including 55p P+P. Cheques payable to MicroProse Software Ltd,

No.lZ

MicroProse Ltd., 2 Market Place, Tetbury, Gloucestershire GL8 8DA. UK. Tel: (0666) 54326. Tlx: 43422 MPS/UKG.

§§§§3

§|I|

1 %

Thor The Warrior

4,678,932 David Taylor, Alvington, Glos
3,974,521 Paul Cashley, Bishopston, Bristol
2,999,320 Richard Hardbattle, Nuneaton,
Warks

Questor the Elf

2,497,341 Paul Cashley, Bishopston, Bristol

ALIENS (Electric Dreams)

126,500 Paul Griffiths, Llandudno, N Wales
52,725 Sean Meadows, North End,
Portsmouth

23,950 George Dick, Invergordon, Scotland

ALLEYKAT (Hewson)

14,582,700 Jean-Claude Zeh, Hoenheim,
France

9,334,400 Richard Hudson, Copmanthorpe,
York

8.917.300 Tony Shoreman, Billington. Lancs

ANTIRIAD (Palace Software)

Completed In . . .

3:06 M Gooday, Bishop's Stortford. Herts
3:40 Damian Boocock. Colne. Lancs
3:52 Ged Keaveney. Huddersfield. W Yorvs

ARKANOID (Imagine)

1 ,262,190 Jonathon Webb. Highbridge.
Somerset

979,600 Paul Stapley. Whitby. N Yorks
913,090 Steve Pratt. Leighton Buzzard. Beds

ARMOURDILLO (Code Masters)

29.300 Adie Griffiths. Crowborough. E Sussex

21 .000 P Griffiths. Llandudno. N Wales

9.200 Chris Mclean. Helsby. Cheshire

AUF WIEDERSEHEN MONTY (Gremlin
Graphics)

51 ,223 Casey Gallacher. Swallowfield.
Reading

18.000 Sanjay Vaghela. Rugby. Warks
17,482 Steve Bennett. Prestatyn. Clwyd

BARBARIAN (Palace Software)

160.000 Paul Griffiths. Llandudno. N Wales

44,450 Colin Box. Doncaster. S Yorks

21 .200 Chris McLean. Helsby. Cheshire

BEAMRIDER (Activision)

980.420 Steve Jarratt. ZZAP! Towers
642,704 Michael Sung. Peterlee. Co Durham
272,174 Steve Tye. Kidderminster, Worcs

BMX SIMULATOR (Code Masters)

4.420 Jap, Ettingshall Park, Wolverhampton
4,260 Adrian Broadley, Manby, Lines
3,755 Stuart Jesson, Stoney Stanton, Leics

BREAKTHRU (US Gold)

246.000 Vincent Old, Wellingborough,
Northants

138,050 Paul Gibson, Sunderland, Tyne And
Wear

1 1 1 .900 Gary Rice, Colchester, Essex

BULLDOG (Gremlin Graphics)

2.238.200 Gary Footitt, Droylsden,
Manchester

1,825,700 Roger Alexandersson, Goteborg,
Sweden

1.207.200 Tony Shoreman, Billington, Lancs

COBRA (Ocean)

285.900 Philip Stevens, Alfreton, Derbyshire
93,400 Patrick Green, Burnley, Lancs

89.200 Stephen Wildridge, Great Sutton, S
Wirral

CRYSTAL CASTLES (US Gold)

677,992 Julian Rignall, ZZAP! Towers
668,995 Richard Hardbattle, Nuneaton,
Warks

652,127 lain Davidson, Dumfries, Scotland

DECATHLON (Firebird)

10,084 Andrew Holmes, Bottesford, Notts
10,247 Jonathan Richards, Attleborough,
Warks

9,840 Howard Worton, Southwark, London

DEFENDER OF THE CROWN (Mirrorsoft)

Completed by:

March 1201 Van Crombrugge Bart, Anterp,
Belgium

DELTA (Thalamus)

1,258,430 Colin Redfern, Heywood, Lancs
972,636 Andrew Simmonds, E Studdal, Kent
895,850 Aidon Donnelley, Kilmacud, Dublin

DRAGON’S LAIR (Software Projects)

63.997 Sean Walker (Runsoft), Melbourne,
Australia

36.642 Simon Cole's Mum, Chelmsford,

Essex

33.750 Simon Cole. Chelmsford, Essex

DUET (Elite)

168.170 Fu Sang Li. Crewe. Cheshire
159.110 Gary Smith. Basingstoke, Hants
1 20.370 Paul Dunstan. High Wycombe, Bucks

ESCAPE FROM SINGE’S CASTLE
(Software Projects)

92.742 Craig Knight. Keyworth. Notts
78.538 Howard Clarke. Inverness, Scotland
76.584 Ian Sullivan. Forest Hill. London

EXPRESS RAIDER (US Gold)

68.450 Gavin Shute. Aylesbury. Bucks

42.500 Chris McLean. Helsby. Cheshire

THE EQUALISER (The Power House)

20.620 Dean Stinton. Botley. Southampton
14.850 Jonathan Richards. Attleborough.
Warks

13.120 Graeme Crichton. Irvine. Ayrshire

FEUD (Bulldog)

87% David Barker. Bedfont. Middx
44% Paul Dunstan. High Wycombe. Bucks
44% Richard Morgan. Fordingbndge.
Hampshire

FIRELORD (Hewson)

145,205 Richard Pargeter. Coventry. W Mids
1 43, 1 60 Daniel Osbourne. Hornsea. N Humbs
1 16,805 Damian Ward. Harrogate. W Yorks

FIRETRACK (Electric Dreams)

835,640 Darren Cole, Chingford. London
664,960 Kristian Bruun. Copenhagen.
Denmark

527,290 Johnny Larsen, Copenhagen.
Denmark

FIST II (Melbourne House)

1.753.000 Steven Rolf, Kettering, Northants

1,560,800 Ged Keaveney, Huddersfield, W
Yorks

1.220.000 Steven Guilfoyle, Oldham

GALIVAN (Imagine)

287.000 Chris McLean, Helsby, Cheshire

GAUNTLET: DEEPER DUNGEONS (US
Gold)

Merlin The Wizard

8,787,1 95 Asher Rashid, Thornaby, Cleveland
4,350,297 Paul Cashley, Bishopston, Bristol
4,308,061 Michael Robertson, Stirlingshire,
Scotland

Thyra the Valkyrie

818,692 Paul Hollington, Hullbridge, Essex

GHOSTS ’N’ GOBLINS (Elite)

920.800 Casey Gallacher, Swallowfield,
Reading

531,890 Christian Major, Norwich, Norfolk
456,060 Chris Goodswen, Norwich, Norfolk

GUNSHIP (Microprose)

278,785 Richard Mellor, Bridgwater,

Somerset

265.990 David Nicol, Heworth, York
262,960 Mark Logan, Inverness, Scotland

HEAD OVER HEELS (Ocean)

95,980 Ciaran Brennan, ZZAP! Towers
88,140 Richard Lunn, Leeds, W Yorks
86,860 A Watson, Stockton, Cleveland

HERCULES (Alpha/Omega)

1 ,1 59,880 Thomas Broers, Lundflata, Norway
81 5,920 Nils-Olav Barvag, 6770 Nordfjordeid,
Norway

755.500 Robert Hemphill. Port Glasgow

HERO (Firebird)

177,762 Patrick Lammers, 1400 Nivelles,
Belgium

125,324 Julian Rignall, ZZAP! Towers
52,093 Paul Cochrane. Dundee. Scotland

I, BALL (Firebird)

47.760 Marc Spence. Leeds 10
32,090 Matthew Viveash. Chinnor. Oxon

21 .300 Stuart Scattergood. Address not
included

INTO THE EAGLE’S NEST (Pandora)

2.186.800 Guy Gilding, Slough. Berks

1.143.300 M Booman. Oud-Beijerland. The
Netherlands

1 .049.800 Frank the Menhir. Herts

IRIDIS ALPHA (Llamasoft)

599.760 George Bray. Armthorpe. Doncaster
349.520 Colin Redfern. Heywood. Lancs
204.390 Jonathan Wood. Edgeware, Middx

JAILBREAK (Konami)

195.500 Paul Gibson. Sunderland, Tyne And
Wear

102.500 Malcolm Redfern, Preston, Lancs

89.500 Stephen Lund, Bradford, W Yorks

JEEP COMMAND (Bug Byte)

303.990 J Gheorghisor (Runsoft), Melbourne,
Australia

250.350 Dave Breed, Cullercoats, Tyne &
Wear

227.380 Marc Hodge, Selby, N Yorks

KNUCKLEBUSTERS (Melbourne House)

1 1 .700 Craig Bent, Failsworth, Manchester

6.300 Steve Quinnell, New Eltham, London

5.700 Bharat Vaghela, Rugby, Warks

KRAKOUT (Gremlin Graphics)

21 ,1 84,770 Michael Eikmans, The
Netherlands

1 2.740.800 Dave & Brett Warburton, Cheshire

3.068.500 Steven Packer, Chelmsford, Essex

LEADER BOARD (US Gold/Access)

NOVICE

-39 Robert Smith, Edgbaston, Birmingham
-28 Paul Ratje, Newport, Isle of wight
-26 Gary Fuller, Hethersett, Norfolk

AMATEUR

-27 Jonathon Webb, Highbridge, Somerset
-25 Robert Troughton, Keighley, W Yorks
-23 Paul Allan, Aberdeen

PROFESSIONAL

-33 Philip Astley, Kingswinford, W Mids
-24 Paul Allan, Aberdeen
-22 Robin Evans, Tring, Herts

LEADERBOARD: EXECUTIVE EDITION (US
Gold/Access)

NOVICE

-25 David Dunn, Shaftesbury, Dorset
-23 Anthony Scotthorne, Worksop, Notts
-21 Gary Smith, Basingstoke, Hants

AMATEUR

-19 G Sinclair, Cornwall
PROFESSIONAL

-30 Steve Jones, North End, Portsmouth
-18 Stewart Rogers, Tunbridge Wells, Kent

LIGHTFORCE (FTL)

3,239,250 Richard Burgman, Seaford, Essex
2,526,975 Jake E, West Bromwich, W Mids
2,296,360 Taki Liberopoulos, Athens, Greece

MARIO BROTHERS (Ocean)

449,380 Jake E, West Bromwich, W Mids
252,620 Ozz, New Eltham, London

METROCROSS (US Gold)

31 1 ,700 Louis Farnham, Twickenham,
Middlesex

168,950 Gary Smith, Basingstoke, Hants

90,000 David Bond, Swindon, Wilts

MILK RACE (Mastertronic)

7,965 Kristian Fulfitt, Estover, Plymouth
7,906 Vincent Old, Wellingborough, Northants
7,794 Gary Smith, Basingstoke, Hants

MONTEZUMA’S REVENGE (Databyte)

1 .127.500 W Drew, Brisbanem, Australia

412.450 Adam Trewella, Stapleton, Bristol

398.450 Ozz, New Eltham, London

MUTANTS (Ocean)

66.209.750 Steven Packer, Chelmsford,
Essex

51 .644.500 Adie Bonner, Southbourne

31 .025.750 Gareth Williams, Swansea, W
Glamorgan

NEMESIS THE WARLOCK (Martech)

37,460 Anthony Scotthorne, Worksop, Notts
14,290 Andrew Scully, Brincliffe, Sheffield
12,770 Mike Thomas, Caerphilly, Mid Glam

NINJA MASTER (Mastertronic)

485,840 Gordon Shearer, Rothes, Morayshire
198,880 Robert Futter, Downham Market,
Norfolk

IIIIII9

mini

Z (Rhino) 0 .

701 ,250 Howard Clarke, Inverness, Scotland
671 ’,450 Jake E, West Bromwich, W Mids

576,200 Stephen Ross, Ryde, Isle of Wight

TOY BIZARRE (Activision)

223,420 J D Oliver, Ipswich, Suffolk

144,700 Sherif Salama, Cairo, Egypt

102.900 Julian Rignall, ZZAP! Towers

TRAILBLAZER (Gremlin Graphics)

1 ,1 23,350 Jason Cooper, Wednesbury, W

Mids , • i

1 ,1 20,040 Henry Rawlinson, Salisbury, Wilts
828,270 Ian Robinson, Tottenham, London

TRAP (Alligata)

481 .900 Lawry Simm, Liverpool L23
429,510 Colin Bayne, Glenrothes, Fife

328,500 Robert Elliot, Miadlesborough,
Cleveland

SKOOL DAZE (Micromega)

126,910 Anthony Duiker (Runsoft),
Melbourne, Australia

1 20,780 Gordon Shearer, Rothes, Morayshire
104,340 Scott Moore, Fixby, Huddersfield

SLAMBALL (Americana)

7 462,660 Carleton Shaw, London, N10
5,801 ,720 C Harbinson, Rumney, Cardiff
5,504,870 Gavin Burnett, Westhill, Inverness

SLAP FIGHT (Imagine)

586,000 Matthew Viveash, Chinnor, Oxon
147,775 David Scouller, Billingham,
Cleveland

ZOLYX (Firebird)

261 608 Nick Aulton, Solihull, W Mids
256,929 Anthony Scotthorne, Worksop, Notts
210,011 Jason Chyppendale, Hall Green, W
Mids

ZONE RANGER (Firebird)

18,720 Marc Spence, Leeds 10
14,650 Jonathan Wood, Edgeware, Middx
1 2,904 Mrs Sue McGovern, Leighton Buzzard
Beds

Applications to the Scorelord
should be made on a postcard
or the back of a sealed envelope,
and entries which contain more
than three high-scores will not be

accepted.

196,315 Michael Pihl, Kumla, Sweden

NOMAD (Ocean)

5,264 John Gheorghisor, (Runsoft), Australia
4,065 Paul Want, Harrogate, N Yorks
3 885 Paul Tudor, Stourbridge, Pedmore

OLLI AND LISSA (Firebird)

19,820 Lee Barker, Northwich, Cheshire
14,898 Stuart Scattergood, Address not
included

13,715 Henderik Engelsman, Maassluis,
Holland

PANTHER (Mastertronic)

250,900 Liam Chivers, Battenhall, Worcs

215,500 Jason Birnie, Cranleigh, Surrey
200,940 Steve Lee, Guildford, Surrey

PAPERBOY (Elite)

301,400 Mark Rolf, Kettering, Northants

300.700 John White, Whitefield, Manchester

140.700 Steve Quinnell, New Eltham, London

PARADROID PLUS (Hewson)

86.500 Brian Yeo, Tarbolton, Ayrshire

63,200 Adam Beabies, Tarbolton, Ayrshire

45.500 Karim Bouali, Tooting, London

PARALLAX (Ocean)

106,850 Ali Kerswell, Guildford, Surrey

89,300 Jason Birnie, Cranleigh, Surrey

78,400 Adam Pracy, Newton Flotman,
Norwich

PARK PATROL (Firebird)

995,610 Jonathan Edge, Waverton, Cheshire
994,990 Simon Jones, Chelmsford, Essex
993,130 Paul Harwood, Penge, London

POD (Mastertronic)

1 .468.440 Karsten Toksvig, 8832 SKAIS,
Denmark

1 .082.440 Matthew Penn, Ormskirk,
Lancashire

1 ,046,800 Dean James, West Bromwich, W
Mids

QUARTET (Activision)

2,874,500 Adie griffiths, Crowborough, E
Sussex

295,385 Julian Rignall, ZZAP! Towers

186,400 Steven Packer, Chelmsford, Essex

RE-BOUNDER (Gremlin Graphics)

1,276,337 Cleveland Gibbon, Erdington, W

Mids ...

1 ,235,130 Nik Kimberley, Wolverhampton, W

Mids

137,560 Cleveland Gibbon, Erdington, W
Mids

RIVER RAID (Firebird)

259,235 Julian Rignall, ZZAP! Towers
131 ,020 Jonathan Richards, Attleborough,
Warks

ROAD RUNNER (US Gold)

285,000 Andrew Dallyn, Braunton, Devon

282,860 Paul Dunstan, High Wycombe, Bucks
272,320 Roger Alexandersson, Goteborg,
Sweden

ROCK ’N’ WRESTLE (Melbourne House)

3,1 25,1 00 Jamie Orridge, Gedling,
Nottingham

2,655,200 Alan Smith, Glenrothers, Fife

941 ,300 Graeme Dutch, Tillydrone, Aberdeen

SABOTEUR (Durell)

£2,789,600 Gareth Mitchell, Mirfield, W Yorks
£1,175,000 Daniel Maurice, Redland, Bristol
£971 ,300 Jari Jaakola, Inkeroinen, Finland

SANXION (Thalamus)

1 ,006,466 Steven Malpass, Stoke-on-Trent,

Staffs .......

784,390 Stephen Gandy, Halesowen, W Mids

517,860 Peter Williams, Preston, Lancs

SCOOBY DOO (Elite)

248.600 Sean McDonaqh.Jarrow.Tvne &Wear
194,550 Gareth Mackie, Peterhead,
Aberdeenshire

153.600 Stuart Kelly, Reading, Berks

SHAO-LIN’S ROAD (The Edge)

128,420 Damian Boocock, Colne, Lancs

36,164 Steven Young, Wallsend, Tyne & Wear

31 ,430 Howard Worton, Southwark, London

SHOCKWAY RIDER (FTL)

1 ,524,798 Matthew Phypers, Sunnyhill. Derby

291 ,000 Julian Rignall, ZZAP! Towers
88,350 Howard Worton, Southwark. London

RANARAMA (Hewson)

3 358,400 Richard Leadbetter, Witham, Essex

1 1822,200 Craig Knight, Keyworth, Notts

1,555,700 Martin Draper, Alfreton, Derby

SILENT SERVICE (US Gold/Microprose)

(TONS SUNK)

1 ,032,800 Guy Gilding, Slough. Berks

910.100 Karsten Tokisuig, Drosselvej 6.
Denmark

563.100 Steven Hall, Croughton. N Hants

SKATE ROCK (Bubble Bus)

288,430 Justin Cole, Huddersfield, W Yorks
239,020 Sean Walker, (Runsoft), Australia
223,280 Stephen Bloor, Nuneaton, Warks

SKY RUNNER (Cascade)

$669,700 John Doyle, Kilmarnoch, Ayrshire
$190,600 Martin Dobson, London El 2
$125,500 Peter Hulme, Bishop’s Stortford,
Herts

SPLIT PERSONALITIES (Domark)

680,400 Mrs L Hayden, London El 6

665,200 Mrs J Carroll, Burnham-on-Sea,
Somerset

505,100 Michael Skelcher, Wentonmg, Beds

STARQUAKE (Bubble Bus)

287,763 Nigel Froud, Godaiming, Surrey
287,140 Ove Knudseu, 5033 Fyllingsdaleu,
Norway

273,667 Per Kjellander, Stenungsund,
Sweden

STREET SURFER (Bubble Bus)

21 ,108 Jonathan Stock, Denton,

Northampton _ .. ,

16 270 Howard Clarke, Inverness, Scotland
1 5’, 81 1 Adie Griffiths, Crowborough, E Sussex

SUPER CYCLE (US Gold/Epyx)

342,650 Bryan Chamberlain, Norwich, Norfolk

328,860 Leigh O’Connell, Murrumbeena,

Australia L1 _ .

320,160 A Verhaeghe, Bletchley, Bucks

TENTH FRAME (US Gold/Access)

AMATEUR

300 Stefan Alexandersson, Goteborg,
Sweden

279 R Geens, B8470 De Panne, The
Netherlands

278 Michael Eley, Wimbourne, Dorset

PROFESSIONAL

300 Stefan Alexandersson, Goteborg,
Sweden

233 Neil Taylor, Bracknell, Berks

214 Graeme Dutch, Tillydrone, Aberdeen

TERRA CRESTA (Imagine)

402,1 00 Michael Dunajew, Adelaide, Australia

371 .800 Robert Hemphill, Port Glasgow,
Renfrewshire

341 .000 Marc Hodge, Selby, N Yorks

THING BOUNCES BACK (Gremlin
Graphics)

1 .649.973 Mick Kinsman. New Malden. Surrey
1 338.108 Steve Bennett. Prestatyn. Clwyd
1 134.940 lain Davidson. Dumfries. Scotland

THRUST (Firebird)

4.764.950 Robert Troughton, Keighley, W

Yorks o x/ ,

4.1 82.050 Arlo Swinson, Doncaster, S Yorks

3.500.800 Declan Quinn, Bessbrook, Newry
Co Down

UCHI MATA (Martech)

378,760 Mark Sexton, Lancing, W Sussex
353,795 Nicholas Lester, Dudley, W Mids
326,655 D Simmons, Wythenshawe,
Manchester

URIDIUM PLUS (Hewson)

244,505 Michael Lykke, Viborg, Denmark
197,925 Russell Wallace, Co Dublin, Ireland
175,405 Paul Wheatley, S Norwood, London

VIDEO MEANIES (Mastertronic)

1 1 7 496 Stuart Jesson, Stoney Stanton, Leics
1 16’, 758 Dean James, West Bromwich, W
Mids

1 1 3,524 Sanjay Vaghela, Rugby, Warks

VOIDRUNNER (Mastertronic)

5,403,560 Mick Wall, Hillsborough, Sheffield
4,903,840 Adam Loxton, Street, Somerset
3’, 800, 564 Steven Young, Wallsend, Tyne &
Wear

WARHAWK (Firebird)

6 229,526 Glenn Haworth, Swallow, Lines
4’, 459, 784 Hamish Patel, Northolt, Middlesex
3,322,648 Jamie Orridge, Gedling,
Nottingham

WEST BANK (Gremlin Graphics)

210 000 Jon Cullen, Hillgate, Stockport
141 ,250 Mark Huck, Washington, Tyne &
Wear

131 ,600 James Lavelle, Copmanthorpe, York

WIZARD’S LAIR (Bubble Bus)

1 54,140 Craig Wills, Taunton, Somerset
152,735 Steven Medcraft, Rayleigh, Essex
133,085 Nik Yarker, Blaby, Leicester

WONDER BOY (Activision)

353,160 Jason Langmead, Vale, Guernsey
347,410 Adie Griffiths, Crowborough, E
Sussex

168,170 Gary Blackledge, Crowborough, E
Sussex

XEVIOUS (US Gold)

824.380 Fintan Brady, Virginia, Ireland
281 .280 Jonathon Webb, Highbridge,
Somerset

224.100 Steven Parkes, Newcastle, Australia

YIE AR KUNG-FU (Imagine)

1 307,000 Gavin Conway, Paisley, Scotland

394,700 M Brown & M Grange, Borrowash,
Derby

355,300 Andrew Crowther, Kibworth,
Leicester

THUNDERBOLT (Code Masters)

213 220RobertTroughton, Keighley, W Yorks
1 64.450 Adie Griffiths, Crowborough, E
Sussex

YIE AR KUNG-FU II (Imagine)

288.300 Carl Adams, Tooting, London

183.300 Ian Coulter, Leeds

166,100 Steven Bramley, Bromley, Kent

•>

p mm

^rf r ^

It’s 7.00 in the evening. You’ve just finished
another meal. You should do your homework but
something is calling you from the garage. Some-
thing that would terrify the neighbours. Something
agile, fast and deadly. Pegasus-the Patrol Hydro-
foil Missilecraft. The temptation is just too much.

the authentic handling of NATO ally
hydrofoils: US, Italian and Israeli.
76mm water cooled naval gun,
Harpoon and Gabriel missiles.

KHOTS 168

Tint 428

Hi l H'OPTER A

ROM 1 • 27

ENDS 9 80 SEARCH FOR TERRORISTS

PAUSED PRESS ANV KIV TO CONTINUE

8 real life missions and
on-screen maps.

Electronic Arts software is available on a wide range of home computers including:
Commodore C64, Commodore Amiga, Atari ST, IBM, Spectrum and Amstrad.

Electronic Arts. 11-49 Station Rd. Langley. Slough. Berkshire. SL3 8YN England.

Wm A

★ POWER-X-TREMEH!

FROM TV SERIES

0871

FROM TVS

★ EXOFRA!

ZAP MILLIONS 0!

Choose from an
awesome array of
weapons and prepare
for the battle of a
lifetime!

Ace McCloud, Jake
Rockwell and Max Ray
are THE CENTURIONS!
Stop the evil Doc Terror
in his desperate bid to
destroy the world! Guide
the Centurions through
Space, Sea and Air, and
find all six parts of the
master key before it's too

SPECIAL FEATURES

Multi-directional scrolling

3 massive levels

Amazing ‘Exoframe’ feature

C64 128 cass £9.99 C64 128 disk Cl 2.99 AMSTRADcass
£9.99 AMSTRAD disk £14.99 SPECTRUM £8.99

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1 1 (-) HEAD OVER HEELS

Ocean

12 (17) GREEN BERET

Imagine

13 (10) NEMESIS

Konami

14 (-) EXECUTIVE LEADERBOARD

US Gold/Access

1 (1) WORLD GAMES (13%)

US Gold/Epyx

2 (2) LEADERBOARD

US Gold/Access

3 (3) GAUNTLET

US Gold

4 (29) THE LAST NINJA (6%)

System 3

5 (9) WIZBALL

Ocean

6(5) URIDIUM (4%)

Hewson

7 (4) DELTA

Thalamus

8 (13) ELITE (3%)

Firebird

9 (7) SANXION

Thalamus

10 (8) GUNSHIP IC70,

Microprose

15 (16) GHOSTS ’N’ GOBLINS

Elite

16 (19) ALIENS

Electric Dreams

17 (12) BARBARIAN

Palace

18 (-) DEFENDER OF THE CROWN

Mirrorsoft

19 (6) THE SENTINEL

Firebird

20 (-) INFILTRATOR

US Gold

120 ZZAP! 64 October 1987

—

21 (-) PARADROID

Hewson

22 (1 1) INTO THE EAGLE’S NEST

Pandora

23 (28) ARKANOID

Imagine

24 (14) I, BALL

Firebird

25 (-) WORLD CLASS LEADERBOARD

US Gold/Access

26 (22) SUMMER GAMES II

US Gold/Epyx

27 (15) PARK PATROL

Firebird

28 (21) PAPERBOY

Elite

29 (20) SUPER CYCLE

US Gold/Epyx

30 (18) SACRED ARMOUR OF ANTI R I AD

Palace

OCTOBER 1 987

1 (1) SANXION (36%)

Thalamus

Loading Music - Rob Hubbard

2 (2) DELTA (10%)

Thalamus

Main Theme - Rob Hubbard

3 (3) GREEN BERET (8%)

Imagine

Loading Music - Martin Galway

4 (-) THE LAST NINJA (5%)

System 3

Title Tune - Ben Daglish

5 (-) WIZBALL (4%)

Ocean

Main Theme - Martin Galway

6(9) GHOSTS ’N’ GOBLINS

Elite

Main Theme - Mark Cooksey

7 (4) FLASH GORDON

MAD

Main Theme - Rob Hubbard

8 (8) THRUST

Firebird

Firebird - Rob Hubbard

9 (-) RAMBO

Ocean

Main Theme - Martin Galway

i0(10) ARKANOID

Imagine

Title Tune - Martin Galway

ZZAP! 64 October 1987 121

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The smell of the surf, the sun on your back, the sand between your toes...
This isn’t California Dreamin’ - this is for real! Six of the best. West Coast
sports designed to set your pulse racing! Wow your friends with your
incredible flying skateboard feats; or show your cool hacking at the sack.
Skate down the boardwalk, flip the Frisbee and wheelie the BMX. And then
the ultimate test - that King of Californian sports - shooting the curl as
you battle with those giant Pacific rollers to decide which surfer truly
rules the waves!

California Games™ features superb graphics, all the atmosphere of the
West Coast, and one to eight players can take part. All the quality you
expect from an Epyx product is here and so much more. We could tell you
more but instead lets hear what ZZAP 64 had to say:

‘ ‘California Games is quite simply the apex of computer sports gaming”.

“Even in purely technical terms Epyx have somehow managed to surpass
their own high standards — the pictures and sounds generated by this
program are atmospheric beyond belief.

“If you gather up all the superlatives from previous Epyx reviews and add
them together, you just might go halfway towards describing California
Games”.

There. Need we say more?

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Manufactured and distributed by U.S. Gold Limited under licence from Epyx Inc.
U.S. Gold Limited, 2/3 Holford Way, Holford, Birmingham B6 7 AX.

Epyx is a Registered Trademark No. 1195270.

COMING SOON TO A
MONITOR NEAR YOU

All of you - sit up and listen! Here
comes a piece of software that
has the potential to become one
of the most important releases
ever to appear on the Commo-
dore 64! The Shoot ’em up Con-
struction Kit from Sensible Soft-
ware, creators of Parallax and
Wizball , is a utility which allows
a user with absolutely no knowl-
edge of BASIC or machine code
to create his very own stationary
or vertically scrolling blasting
games.

This type of program is
nothing new, with Activision’s
Game Maker being a forerunner.
However, its limitations became

very obvious to any budding
games designer, and the
finished results were often dic-
tated by the constraints of the
program.

The Shoot ’em up Construc-
tion Kit on the other hand, is an
extremely powerful and very
flexible, user-friendly utility
which allows a game to be
designed, put together and
saved independently of the
designer program. A saved
game can therefore be given to
friends and played without ever
having to use the main module
again.

Designing a game starts with

the main menu. From here the
user selects one of nine edit
modes, tests a game or uses the
storage feature. The nine basic
options are: edit sprites, back-
ground, objects, sound effects,
player limitations, attack waves,
levels, character set and front

end. Choosing one of these
results in a further sub-menu
appearing, which gives more
choices for the feature in opera-
tion.

For example, when the 'Edit
Sprite’ option is chosen, the
screen prompts: select, edit,
edit colour, slide, mirror, copy
and erase. This comprehensive
series of options allow up to 1 28
12X21 sprites to be designed,
coloured, animated and bolted
together.

Backgrounds are designed in
similar fashion, with an exten-
sive sub-menu allowing a
character) to be selected,
edited and coloured, and all
chars to be put into blocks and
used to create a scrolling map.
The end results are limited only
by the user’s imagination with
cityscapes, a hostile and barren
planet, green pastures and
metallic spaceships being a
fraction of the possibilities -
now the Universe isn’t the limit!

One of the best features is the
'Edit Sound Effects’ option. This
noise generator is akin to a mini-
ature 'mixing deck’, and allows
up to twenty four different sound
effects to be generated by
changing the on-screen slide
controls. The wave, attack, pitch
and speed and time of the rise
and fall can be altered to create
an incredibly wide variety of
sounds - ranging from a soft
gong to the most jarring and
raucous white noise effects.

Other edit options allow the
user to define how much space
the player has to move in, set the
style, frequency and hostility of
attack waves and designate the
difficulty level. Another incredi-
bly useful feature lets the user
select whether multiples or

r-r.iSsii

124 ZZAP! 64 October 1987

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extra weapons feature in the
gameplay, and their function in
the gameplay is tailored to suit
requirements. When the game
and graphics have been set, the
‘front end* including character
set, title screen and logo are
designed to add the finishing
touches.

To show some of its
capabilities, the package comes
with four demo games: the

cheekily named Slap ’n’ Tickle ,
Outlaw , a Gunsmoke clone,
Transputer Man , a Robotron
game and one more, which
hasn’t yet been christened.

The Shoot ’em up Construc-
tion Kit is on display at the PCW
on Palace’s stand, and is
released later in September on
the new Outlaw label, priced
£14.99 on cassette and £19.99
for the disk version.

IACTIVISIO NI

HOME COM PUT

ARE

Electric Dream’s latest arcade
conversion is Atari’s one or two
player arcade race game, Super
Sprint

The entire track is viewed
from above, with four tiny racers
participating. A race is played
over four laps, and the rule is
simple: ‘winner stays on’.
Throughout the race, random
hazards appear including oil
slicks, tornadoes (the windy
type) and traffic cones, all of
which must be avoided to save
time.

Spanners also appear on the
road and are picked up when run
over. Once three have been col-
lected, the player is given the
opportunity to add an extra fea-
ture to his car: extra traction,
turbo speed or faster accelera-
tion. There are five levels of each
feature, and a car with all fifteen
is one mean street machine.

It certainly looks like the con-
version could be a faithful repr-

Super Sprint is on display on
Electric Dreams’ stand at the
PCW show and is due out at the
end of September, for £9.99 on
cassette and £14.99 on disk.

Later in the year Activision
promise a Championship Sprint
version which contains different
tracks and a track designer.
Sounds good!

A September release date is
also set for Activision’s latest
high-tech arcade game, X-15
Alpha Mission. As the pilot of the
fastest plane in the world it is
your task to fly the X-15 to the
outer reaches of the atmos-
phere, seek out a terrorist-held
space station and ‘terminate
with extreme prejudice’!

Originally published by the
American company Absolute
Entertainment, X-f 5 features
‘an arcade style flight mission
utilising state of the art 3D
graphics’. Just for the record, it
has been written by John Van
Ryzin, whose earlier work
includes the classic HERO.

X-15 Alpha Mission will cost
£9.99 on cassette and £14.99 on
disk, so start saving!
esentation, as it features eight
different tracks and all the '
speed turns, jump ramps, poles,
doors, bridges and tunnels of
the original.

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ZZAP! 64 October 1 987 1 25

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With a full complement of
weapons, and plenty of fuel, our
crash-helmeted hero is all set to
take on the challenge for the
Mean Streak bike

does not exist. People are trans-
ported by molecular assembly/
disassembly systems, and the
roads that have for so long acted
as the arteries and veins of the
country are now empty, and left
to the mercy of the elements.

As in every society, there is
always a rebellious sector -
those people who cannot or will
not conform to the status quo.
The breed of renegade bom
from the safe and self-centred

i -

► Road-wars, 24th Century style,

with Mean Streak

After stunning us all with their
Mediaeval cinematic adventure,
Defender of the Crown , Mirror-
soft have decided to take us on
a trip to the far-flung future,
where their latest release, Mean
Streak (pictured top and centre)
is set.

The exact location is a
dangerous and barbaric London
of the 23rd Century. Society has
become so introverted and self-
oriented that to all intents and
purposes, life outside their
technologically enclosed world

126 ZZAP! 64 October 1987

society of this day and age takes
its pleasures from the thrill and
excitement of riding high-pow-
ered motorbikes along the
Battletrack - their name for the
long-disused London orbital
ring-road, the M25.

To add even more incentive to
their efforts, there is a prize on
offer to the biker who can claim
the Battletrack for his own - the
Mean Streak -an absolutely
incredible custom motorbike
whose power is unequalled
throughout the world. An ulti-
mate prize for the winner of the
ultimate challenge.

The player takes the role of
one of the bikers, and dodges
and blasts his way through five
levels of hazard-filled Battlet-
rack. This perilous ride involves
dodging the outcast bikers who
inhabit the motorway, avoiding
the huge cracks and potholes
which now scar the Tarmac
track and eventually completing
the course to take the Mean
Streak as his just reward.

The are two options allowing
Mean Streak to be played solo,
or with another biker - one per-
son taking the lead role, while
the other controls the outcast
bikers.

The program, designed by
David Bishop, is being written by
the Dalali software team, and
should be available around mid
October for the princely sum of
£9.95 on cassette.

The second of Mirrorsoft’s
up-and-coming releases fea-
tures that staunch supporter of
bars and sofas, that lovable
lounge lizard Andy Capp. This
evergreen character has been
lurking in the pages of the Mirror
for years, and has finally mus-
tered the energy to makes his
way from paper to the Commo-
dore 64. As you can see from the
picture below, Andy, Flo and all
the other characters have been
faithfully reproduced in pixel
form. Mirrorsoft hope for a late
October release - so keep an
eye out.

Contact your nearest computer store
for details on full range or clip 4

the coupon. /

Prices from £5.95 - £29.95 S

Euromax Electronics Ltd.

FREEPOST Bessingby
Industrial Estate
Bridl ington YOI 6 4ST

^ 0262 602541

Access Accepted ^

pjMgfef

Q^JL,

Due for release in late October
is /, Alien (pictured bottom left),
a ‘cartoon style’ arcade adven-
ture which follows the exploits
of an unfortunate extra-terrest-
rial held captive inside a hostile
spacecraft.

The creature’s quest for free-
dom initially takes place across
the four-way scrolling scrolling
spaceship corridors where he
attempts to free his fellow aliens
who are also incarcerated in the
vessel. This heroic task requires
the escapee to run the gauntlet
of all the hostile aliens on board.

When he finally manages to
escape the spacecraft, the alien
has to negotiate the enemy hos-
tile aliens’ home planet, explor-
ing paths and caverns until, in
the lower reaches of the planet,
the main control console and his
missing spacecraft are eventu-
ally found.

Solid Air are a new team of

programmers who are currently
working on CRL’s latest hori-
zontally scrolling shoot ’em up,
Jet Boys (pictured above left).
The action is set across a series
of scenic forests and ruins,
where the player takes the part
of one of the Jet Boys - a team
of jet-packing heroes who pat-
rol the land in search of invading
alien forces.

The third up-and-coming CRL
release is Discovery , The

action is set way out in deep
space where the player lands on
an ancient and fragmented
space station which has to be
repaired and reactivated.

Flying to each of the 12 dock-
ing platforms within the station
is rewarded by a different sub-
game, such as breakout or sol-
itaire (pictured centre right). As
each sub-game is completed,
points are awarded, together
with sections of a circuit board.
Once the circuit board is com-
plete, it is put into the Discov-
ery’s main power systems to
fully re-energise the engines
and thus enable it to be flown
I back to Earth.

Although Accolade have only
released a few games in their
two year existence, they have
managed to ensure a consis-
tently high standard, with earlier
successes including Hardball (a
ZZAP! Sizzler), Ps/-5 Trading
Company and Killed Until Dead .
That level of excellence looks
set to continue with their newest
game, Accolade's Comics . This
highly original piece of software
is described as the ‘first living
comic book’, and gives the
player control over a binary
comic book.

The storyline features the car-
toon strip exploits of Steve
Keene (brother of Milton), a pri-
vate spy who is sent on a life and
death mission to rescue the
famous professor, Zoron Farad.

The action is displayed as a
series of animated comic-style
frames and allows the player to
alter the progress of the tale by
choosing Keene’s responses to
situations. This is achieved by
selecting one of three different
speech bubbles when prompt-
ed, or choosing a specific action
whenever an arrow appears.

PREVIEW

Steve has a wide range of
wisecracks and smart alec
comments, but one too many
and the opposition just might
take offence, with dire consequ-
ences. According to the twist
and turn of the plot, one of eight
arcade sequences may appear.
The player takes direct control
of the hero and guides him
safely though the peril in true
arcade style. Extreme care has
to be take in these sub-games,
as the outcome directly influ-
ences the storyline - either for
better or worse. Keene starts
the mission with five lives, and
each time an arcade sequence
is fluffed, or the wrong action is
taken, one is removed from the
total. When the intrepid detec-
tive finally croaks, there’s a high
score table which automatically
saves to disk for posterity and
ego-boosting.

Accolade's Comics takes up
six sides of disk and should have
enough depth to keep most
comic book fans coming back
for more. Apparently a cassette
version is pending, but, for obvi-
ous reasons, details are lacking
at the present time.

Those who go to the PC W can
see Accolade's Comics in action
on the US Gold stand, the rest
will have to wait until October,
when it is released.

ZZAP! 64 October 1 987 1 29

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old favourite, Ninja Magic! Our
contestant has his own special
moves too, the results of whicl
are also pretty devastating.

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different opponents. Each of the
fighters has a different special-
ly move, a. * thes e
deadly blown KisseSi swift kicks
to the lower regions, bone-

sette and £14.99 disk.

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high cliff. Next comes a jungle
confrontation with the psych-

otic Bambo. Finally the
a trio to

boxer takes a trip to the mark*
place in the centre of town is

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mmsm,

Following hot on the heels of the
highly successful Last Ninja is
System 3’s long-awaited martial
arts simulation, Bangkok
Kniahts .

Huge ‘cartoon style* sprites

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the player takes a trip to
Bangkok and partakes in a kick
boxing championship. SI *’
life as a country boy, the piayer
proves his worth by battling a
series of local hard-men

Chu Man is the first opponen

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THE

QUEST FOR

ULTIMATE

DEXTERITY

’

BY STAVROS FASOULAS CBM 64/123

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piU

130 ZZAP! 64 1

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ober 1 98

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J Shin Nihon Kikaku gcfl

■M

SPECTRUM COMMODORE /~p!f

£ 7.95 £ 8.95 lwS/

SPECTRUM AMSTRAD v==/ — =^=^ ^7 \ ^=

6 Central Street • Manchester M2 5NS • Tel: 061 834 3939 • Telex: 669977

Imagine Software Limited

FROM THE ARCADES

wm&

-j

From the Dawn of Time comes a Legendary

4.5 billion years have passed since the earth's creation. Many dominators
have ruled in all their glory. But Time, their greatest enemy ultimately
defeated their reign.

And now a Dominator's reign begins Rygar, the Legendary Warrior! A

warrior who respects one code and one code alone, the code of combat.

Antagonistic gladiators, reptiles, mammals, monsters, creatures of
magic. ..come one, come all, come to meet the might of the fearless
Rygar and in the words of the immortal warrior LET'S FIGHT!!!

CBM 64/128 SPECTRUM AMSTRAD

£9.99 £14.99 £8.99 £9.99 £14.99 fB

dcxjdd •> . mom

SCREEN SHOTS FROM ARCADE VERSION.

U.S. Gold Ltd., Units 2/3 Holford Way, Holford
Birmingham B6 7AX. Tel: 021 356 3388

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